Avtar Bhat
KATHUA, Feb 23: Creating a sort of history, a village youth from Flote in Barnoti block of Kathua district who solemnized his marriage in neighboring Punjab State surprised and astonished everyone in his native village after the groom along with his bride alighted from a specially hired chopper in the village today.
Hundreds of villagers gathered to watch Paras Mehta and his bride Smiley alighting from the helicopter after its landing at a specially setup helipad here, in what turned into a gala event.
Amid bursting of crackers and beats of dholaks, villagers and groom’s relatives welcomed the newly married couple as they were overwhelmed to see a chopper landing in the village for the first time. Even for some of the people in the area who would have never dreamt it to happen could not even trust their eyes.
“It was my grandfather’s wish to bring ‘Doli’ of my wife in a unique way. So, this happened. It’s a dream come true for all of us,” Paras told reporters.
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Paras is son of Ajit Mehta, who is a businessman. The family hired a private helicopter from Katra for about Rs 6 lakh for the event.
A native of Dinanagar district in Punjab, bride Smiley expressed her happiness over flying in a chopper to her in-laws’ home. “I am very happy. I have no words to express my feelings,” she said.
Villagers said that it was the first time that a youth brought his bride to the village in a chopper.
“It was the first time that such an extraordinary event took place. The bridegroom and his family members had desired to bring the bride in a helicopter and they fulfilled it,” a villager said.
This is probably the second such event in Jammu and Kashmir. In October 2017, Anil Kumar flew his Baraat in a chopper from R S Pura border area in Jammu district and brought his bride in the chopper.
The villagers said it was first such occasion in the history of Kathua district when anybody from the district used a helicopter on his marriage ceremony to bring the Doli of his bride. The people of the village and surrounding areas were caught unaware about it and they were astonished to see their villager landing in a chopper with his bride from neighboring Punjab.
The youth had booked the chopper from Vaishno Devi Katra and it first flew to Dina Nagar Punjab where from the newly married couple boarded it to the youth’s native village Flote in neighboring Kathua district.
Even it was also a surprise for bride’s parents and relatives when the chopper landed in their village to take the Doli of the bride.
The youth has fulfilled the dream of his grandfather late Janak Raj Mehta, who was Sarpanch of Flote Panchayat.
For the groom and bride these were really very precious moments and they enjoyed it very well with the support of Mehta family.
The villagers said they had never dreamt to witness such an extraordinary marriage ceremony. They said the youth set an example in Kathua district and fulfilled his desire of bringing the Doli of his bride in a helicopter from Punjab’s Bomiyal to village Flote in Kathua.
There was jubilation in the village from every side with people welcoming to newlywed couple with flowers and garlands.
The groom’s uncle Shyam Narian Mehta said that it was desire of our father Janak Raj Mehta to use chopper for bringing Doli of his grandson Paras’s bride.
“To fulfill his wish we made all arrangements for that and got landing permission for the chopper from Punjab Government as well as of Kathua administration. Kathua administration cooperated with us very well and made arrangement of police security, ambulance and fire tender,” he said. He thanked to everyone for support in making arrangements of such precious moments.
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