The groom’s family arrived around 5pm, and waited for the bride’s family, but no one turned up till 7pm

KOLAR: This is the stuff that Sandalwood flicks are made of: A bride eloped with her boyfriend, leaving the groom waiting at the kalyana mantap.

To soothe rising tensions and the hurt sensibilities of the bridegroom and his family, the elders quickly worked out a compromise formula, and arranged his marriage with the runaway bride’s cousin.

But this time, the bride’s family had a surprise in store: The disheartened groom fled the mantap moments before muhurtham, forcing both families to call off the jinxed wedding.

The drama unfolded on Saturday at Padmavathi Kalyana Mantap in Channakal, Malur, about 46km from Bengaluru, where a reception was arranged to perform pre-wedding rituals. Gurresh, 23, was to marry Ramya (name changed).

The groom’s family arrived around 5pm, and waited for the bride’s family, but no one turned up till 7pm, when the reception was scheduled to begin. When they tried to contact the bride’s parents over phone, it remained switched off.

The groom and his relatives, suspecting something amiss, rushed to the bride’s village, only tolearn shehad eloped with her boyfriend. Both camps had a heated exchange, leading to tension.

As the night wore on, elders from both camps had an extended discussion and around midnight, convinced one of Ramya’s cousins Rathnamala (name changed) to marry the groom.

On Sunday, pre-wedding rituals were on and the families were preparing for the muhurtham between 8.15am and 9am. Around 8am, Gurresh suddenly went missing, sending everyone in the kalyana mantap into a tizzy once again. Now, it was the turn of the bride’s family to level charges againstthegroom’s camp.

