According to Kairali News Online, a Malayalam news website, Harris, who works in Saudi Arabia, ended up watching his own wedding live online!
Harris is a native of Kerala’s Kollam district and his bizarre wedding ceremony took place in Alappuzha’s Thamarakulam city.
Due to work commitments back in Saudi Arabia, he could not avail his leaves at the end moment, and thus ended up ‘getting married’ online. His sister performed the traditional role of the groom by tying the thali, or sacred thread around the bride’s neck, on his behalf.
Though such weddings have been known to happen among Muslims around the world, with the nikah taking place over the phone or even with a photograph, the validity of such weddings is a much-debated concept.
Harris, whose wedding had been planned well in advance, instead of postponing his wedding, chose to attend it live from thousands of kilometres away on the Internet.
The Middle East is known to have a lot of people from Kerala working there. But since the locals there are now favoured more in terms of employment, the NRIs get leaves with a lot of difficulties, and they choose to go to work because of the fear of losing their jobs.
Which is why Harris could reportedly not attend his own wedding. He works as a marketing manager in a private company in Saudi Arabia. His bride Shamla Makkayil works as a nurse in a government hospital. Friends and families of the bride and the groom were in attendance at the rather unusual wedding.