In what could only be described as a sports-like last-minute substitution strategy, the family of a bride who suddenly died during a wedding ceremony in India decided to marry her sister off to the groom instead.
IN what could be one of most bizarre twists of a wedding ceremony that ended in a tragedy after a bride suddenly collapsed and died, the groom was forced to marry his wife-to-be’s sister just to continue the rites.
The bride, named Surbhi, died of cardiac arrest in the middle of her wedding in India’s Uttar Pradesh state in India.
Despite the tragedy, Surbhi's family immediately sat down with the family of the groom, Manoj Kumar, to decide what to do next.
In what could only be described as a sports-like last-minute substitution strategy, the families ultimately decided that Surbhi’s sister Nisha would instead be married to Manoj.
“We did not know what to do in the situation," Surbhi’s brother Saurabh told Indian news agency IANS.
“Both the families sat and talked and someone suggested that my younger sister, Nisha, should be married to the groom. The families discussed and both agreed."
Surabhi's body was kept in a separate room while the new wedding took place.
The dead bride-to-be's uncle, Ajab Singh, told IANS it was a "tough call to make” and the families were experiencing mixed emotions.
It was not the first time weddings in Uttar Pradesh state took a dramatic turn.
On May 6, a bride walked out of her own wedding after the groom failed to answer a simple math question. (See also: Wrong math answer dooms wedding in India )
And last May 19, another bride was forced to marry a wedding guest after her groom suddenly disappeared from the ceremony in the city of Kanpur.
Tags: #mysteryandfun, #India, #weddings, #shotgunwedding