INDIA : BEAUTIFUL -LOCKDOWN- WEDDINGS

AFTER working from home, it's time for weddings from home. The significantly cheaper online ceremonies could become an options for couples amid lockdown.

They are charged less than INR 100,000 [$1,300] for the virtual services. To give the online ceremonies a professional touch, make up artists and sari draping experts are hired to help the bride, while a folk singer is engaged to serenade the guests.

All participants are sent logins and passwords so that strangers can't gatecrash the event. 

NEW DELHI : Under lockdown and far apart, Sushen Dang and Keerti Narang went online to say their marriage vows and pulled off a spectacular Indian wedding complete with thousands of guests and raucous Bollywood dancing.

In a country famous for lavish weddings that last for days and days, the young couple is among among a growing number of modifying their marriage ceremonies under a virus lockdown that has limited public gatherings.

Eager to go ahead with the arranged marriage on the auspicious date selected for them by the priest, the pair turned to the Internet to tie the knot.

''We never imagined that even our online wedding be so grand,'' Dang, a 26-year-old data analyst who is based in Toronto, told AFP of the April 19 event.

''A hundred guests joined in our celebration on the app. We live streamed the .ceremony on Facebook which was watched by another 16,000 people.''

The nuptials spanned the country. Dang, decked out in a turban and traditional sherwani kurta, logged on from Mumbai on the coast of the Arabian Sea, while

Narang - in her ed bridal finery - joined from Bareilly in northern Uttar Pradesh state that borders Nepal.

The priest overseeing proceedings chanted hymns as he sat before a ritual fire at his home in Raipur in the central state of Chhatisgarh, with guests logging in from Delhi, Gurgaon and the southern tech hub of Bangalore.

There were minor hiccups - some elderly family members were accidentally unmuted by pets photo-bombed screens. But the energy levels remained high and the occasion was capped off with a fun Bollywood- style dance performance by their cousins.

The wedding video posted on Facebook has so far garnered nearly 260,000 views, making the newly weds ''feel like celebrities

The honor and serving of this beautiful publishing, continues. The World Students Society thanks, AFP.