Breaking away from the norm, a single mother performed 'kanyadaan' of her daughter, a ritual traditionally performed by the bride's father.
When Rajeshwari Sharma's daughter Sandhya decided to marry, the tradition required a man to be present during the kanyadaan ceremony. At this time, Rajeshwari, who's been a mother and father to her kids, performed the ritual of giving away her daughter.
Rajeshwari Sharma is a single mother based out Australia and had mailed Varun Suresh, a wedding photographer based out of Chennai, to document her daughter’s wedding, over an year ago. As Suresh shared the pictures from their wedding recently, it is a Facebook post along with a picture of Sharma conducting her daughter’s ‘kanyadaan’ to her now husband Sam that has gone viral.
According to a report by The News Minute, Sharma wanted to be very involved in the rituals of her daughter’s wedding and instead of letting anybody else ‘give her off’, she chose to do it instead. Traditionally, the father of the bride officiates the ritual.
But here, Sharma, who lives and works in Australia, had separated from her husband of 17 years because it became difficult for her to take care of her two children, manage her job and not have her husband around and involved in their kids’ lives.
“Since he wasn’t a major part of my children’s lives, it was not very difficult for them to adjust.
My family, in that regard, although very concerned, was very supportive,” she said. When Sandhya had decided to get married to Sam, an Australian, Sharma was happy that they wanted a traditional wedding and they headed to Chennai for the same. Here, they decided to stay away from the usual traditional practices that very clearly were embedded in an archaic, patriarchal context.
“I very much wanted to be a part of my daughter’s wedding and so I decided to be the one who had to give her away in marriage,” Sharma said.
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Posted by Aravindan Sudarsan on Saturday, 20 January 2018
