I have been deliberating on whether to post about this or not….decided to do so, and ask my readers what they would have done.

I went to Hyderabad to attend a wedding. The wedding was at 1.45 AM on the 4th, that is on the night of the 3rd/4th.

On the 3rd, we got the news that the bride’s maternal grandmother, who was coming to Hyderabad from Chennai by train, had been taken seriously ill, taken off the train and admitted to a nearby hospital, and then taken back to Chennai by ambulance.

The wedding went as scheduled. On the morning of the 4th, the bride’s maternal aunt and maternal uncle (mother’s sister and brother)left by the early morning flight to Chennai. The post-wedding lunch was cancelled. The bride’s mother left for Chennai by the 6pm flight, after she had taken her daughter ceremonially to her new home.

When I called up yesterday, I realised that the bride’s grandmother had died just about an hour before the actual wedding ceremony. The relatives and friends there decided not to let the wedding function get cancelled, and just informed the concerned people in Hyderabad that the grandmother was seriously ill. They figured that it was just a matter of hours, and that the wedding taking place was paramount..indeed,they say, that is what the grandmother would have wanted.

KM says the correct information should have been given immediately, and the wedding postponed. However, the wedding was arranged with a lot of difficulty by the bride’s parents who actually live in Dubai. Postponement would have caused a lot of problems and perhaps even a cancellation as the traditional-thinking groom’s side might have interpreted it as a bad omen.

What do YOU think should have been done? It is, of course, an abstract question, but still, I wonder…what would I have done at the time?