Lucknow: In the sweltering heat, worsened by heavily humid conditions, it was time for celebrations in Varanasi.
The men turned out almost bare-bodied at the event but the women came out in their Sunday best on Wednesday evening.
Amidst beating of drums and ‘dhols’, the marriage began. Two frogs, dressed up as groom and bride, were tied to a plate and placed inside the ‘mandap’ as the priest recited the wedding mantras on the Dashwamedha Ghat.
The frog wedding, according to priests is an age-old trick to invoke Lord Indra and persuade Him to bring in the rains. The frogs were later offered a meal-not of
insects, though-- but the apparently weary couple did not touch the feast and scampered away into the Ganga for a ‘shower’.
In Mirzapur, an Alsatian dog was ‘married’ to a Labrador bitch in a similarly organized function. The only difference was that the groom and the bride here
were a lot more restless than the ones in Varanasi and fretted and fumed as they were made to take the ‘saat pheras’ before the holy fire. The purpose of the
wedding was, again, to invoke the rain god and bring in relief for parched throats and parched lands.
In Allahabad a group of women got together to plough the fields as the men stood under a tree offering prayers.
"According to Hindu mythology, rains come rushing in if women -- without wearing even a thread on their bodies-- plough the fields. However, since this is not possible in today’s time, we asked the women to drape saris on their bodies but avoid wearing any stitched clothes," says Pandit Sushil Kumar Tiwari.
In Sitapur district, young boys covered themselves in mud and rolled along the streets singing "Kale megha paani de, paani de, gud-dhani de, nahi to apni naani de’.
Men walked behind the boys -- called ‘lotan team’ -- sprinkling water on them. Women came out of their house to offer ‘sherbet’ to the ‘lotan team’ and join them
in their prayers. The local people believe that God always answers the prayers of children and hence this event.
More and more such events are being organized in the cities as well as in the rural interiors because temperatures have been escalating and, majority of the district have yet to get even a single drop of rain. It is only Maharajganj in eastern UP that experienced a heavy rainfall on Wednesday but adjoining districts remained dry.
The increase in humidity levels, receding ground water levels and increasing power cuts have made life even more unbearable this season.
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