Liquor, lies mar marriages in Bihar as brides reject grooms

PURNIA: Liquor and lies (boasting cunningly before marriage about brides or grooms), which were earlier not disliked and were in fact accepted as normal infliction of folks, are now hated so much that they are proving to be spoilers.

- Aditya Nath Jha

Alcohol consumption was either an open secret about grooms or the vichauliye (match-makers) would conceal it by their glib tongue, like they would do about other abguns (bad habits) of the groom.

Only during last one week, at least two marriages were cancelled due as liquor habits and other deception of the groom was exposed. These marriages were annulled at the very last moment as soon as it was discovered that the groom was a drunkard, or worse an impostor and not the one for whom the marriage was fixed.

On Tuesday, the groom of Narayanpur in Bihar's Bhagalpur had to return unmarried after he turned out to be a fraud.