The fairy tale wedding engagement of Indian tennis star Sania Mirza with her childhood friend Mohammad Sohrab Mirza has evoked as much media interest as her short skirts.
Twenty two-year old Sania Mirza was the cynosure of all eyes today in her dazzling gold coloured gaghra and choli and matching diamond studded necklace and golden bangles. Sohrab was equally dazzling in his white Armani suite with a special diamond broach presented to him by Sania. Sohrab, too, presented Sania a diamond ring, costing nearly Rs 10 lakh.
The guest list comprises nearly 328 names which included sportsmen, politicians, close family members and six to seven sports journalists handpicked by Sania Mirza herself. The family and journalists were all asked to assemble at a point and brought to the hotel in a closed window video coach at around 7 pm. The VVIPs were issued special car passes along with the invitations which were to be put upon their front glass for identification. The hotel owned by G V Krishna Reddy, one of the main sponsors of Sania’s sporting career had hired 50 musclemen to guard the gates and all the entrances (four entrances) to the hotel.
Among the guests were Mahendra Bhupati, her doubles partner and manager of her career through Global Sports, Anil Khanna, Indian Tennis federation and suspended Andhra Cricket Association secretary V Chamundeswarinath.
The family of union minister D Purandareswari, and her MLA husband Daggubati Venkateswar Rao and former state minister for minority welfare Mohammed Ali Shabbir were the first to arrive. The media could not keep tack of the invitees as most had been arriving in closed window cars with only their pass numbers written on top.
Cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvaraj were also said to have come but seen by the media.
The grand ball room the venue of the engagement can take over 2000 seats. A 25 feet high dais, which could accommodate about 25 persons has been created in the middle to give full view to all guests who were seats in chairs all around it. A huge lawn infont of the ball room next to the swimming pool inside the hotel is geared up for the huge dinner in which nearly 500 guests could eat in ‘shahi’ luxury has been organized .
According Pashant Padaki, a chef of the hotel nearly 67 course dinner is being served in silver ware specially hired from the closets of the Falaknuma Palace, which is also a property of the present managers of Taj Krishna. “We are serving mughlai, Iranian, continental and also some select vegetarian dishes“ he says.
The engagement event began at around 7.30pm in the ball room after majority of the guests were assembled . In quiet Iranian practice, there was a laborious and traditional process of introductions of all family members to each other, almost 87 of them. “This is an occasion to make each of the families to understand each other’s lineage ,as both of us are Mirza’s and half of our relatives are linked with both the families,” said a family friend.
Imran and Naseema Mirza led their daughter Sania in line of introduction to the family of Sohrab, particularly towards the elder ones and in turn Sohrab’s father and amother also did the same round. “But most of these introductions were completed quickly as the media craze and hype outside was a sore point for all of us,” he said .
At 8.15 pm, the family priest Moulvi S M Malik read out the objectives of such functions and both the families sat patiently and listened to him. Then came the event of exchange of rings. Since the Shiaite customs did not permit direct exchange of rings and jewellery, they were handed over by the family members to the bride and bride groom.
After that both Sania and Sohrab hand in hand cut the 10 kg chocolate cake specially made for the occasion at the Universal bakery, the concerned owned by the Sohrab’s family in Hyderabad. “ It was a full length chocolate cake as everyone knows that the love affairs between Sania and Sohrab had begun with chocolates during their school days,“ said a family source.
