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SWEET AND SOUR: JUST BACK FROM A BIG FAT CHAOTIC KODAVA WEDDING

By P.T. Bopanna

I am just back from a big fat and chaotic Kodava wedding held at the Federation of Kodava Samajas premises at Balugodu near Virajpet in Kodagu (Coorg) district in Karnataka. I will come to the wedding part of it a bit later after writing a few sentences about the venue.

I always felt the Federation of Kodava Samajas is a club meant for rich Kodavas as the membership fee was not affordable for a middle class Kodava or a Kodava clan.

That apart, the Federation does play a useful role in promoting Kodava culture. A few of the men at the helm of the Federation are Kodava entrepreneurs and leaders in the community.

There is no denying the fact that the Federation venue is ideal for holding big fat weddings where the invitees number a few thousands.

I had the opportunity to visit the Balugodu venue 10 years ago to produce a video on Kodava culture. The major drawback at the venue is lack of telecom network.

The videographer who was accompanying me went missing when the ‘pariyakali’ was on. I could not contact him on my mobile. Finally, I had to request the pariyakali team to perform once again to record the video.

Now let me come back to the big fat Kodava wedding I attended recently. Even before reaching the venue, I was warned that the bridegroom’s side had distributed 4,000 invitations for the wedding.

As feared, the traffic jam started at the entrance on Perumbadi road. There was no one to regulate the traffic. Worse, a couple of cars were parked at the entrance which made it difficult to negotiate. By the time, our car was parked in the playground, it took us a good one hour. The same chaos happened when we departed from the venue.

The Federation should ensure that the wedding hosts have made adequate arrangements to regulate the traffic when so many guests have been invited.

Apparently, groom’s party is an affluent and popular family from Murnad town and they had taken the trouble to invite all the Kodavas from that town. I was happy to meet so many of my friends from Murnad whom I had not met for ages. I felt nostalgic and thankful to the wedding hosts.

Note: This article is not meant to show anyone in poor light, including the Federation which is doing a lot for the community. My only request is to ensure there are no traffic jams and efforts are made to improve telecom network in the area.