Are you suffering from ‘wedding guest’ anxiety?

 A while ago, Pune-based designer Rajni Kolhapure’s WhatsApp notification put her in a dilemma. While her BFF Radhika’s gorgeous, animated pink wedding e-invite with hearts and balloons, and happening in Goa, was exciting, it also made her anxious and confused.

‘Should I travel all the way to Goa to attend this wedding?’ ‘Will I contract COVID-19?’ ‘What if one of the guests is positive?’ These were a few questions that troubled Rajni. She, however, is not the only one who is wary of attending a wedding in the pandemic.

While brides and grooms are following strict guidelines like limiting the guest list to only 50 people, maintaining social distancing, thermal scanning, and making masks and sanitisers mandatory for everyone, those receiving a wedding invite or attending the wedding are still apprehensive.

Counting blessings… err… wedding guests

Mihir Ahluwalia, a young entrepreneur from Delhi, attended his cousin’s wedding in Noida in July. However, instead of enjoying the rituals and ceremonies, his focus was on the number of guests. “The entire time that I was there, I was counting the number of people arriving at the venue. With each new entrant, my heart pounded a little more. I couldn’t wait for the wedding to get over and drive back home. Being a social person, I’ve always enjoyed socialising with other guests, but this wedding turned out to be a nightmare for me. No sooner were the pheras complete, when I just dashed out of the venue and drove home,” recalled Mihir, who feels that people should either postpone their wedding or simply share Zoom links to the invitees.

Kolkata-based homemaker Sazia Sultana says, “Wedding invites amid the current crisis make me paranoid. I have already declined to attend five wedding in August and am coming up with creative ways to continue doing so till the

situation improves."

Dress code: Ethnic + PPE

Surili Venkateshan, an IT professional from Bengaluru, who couldn’t avoid attending a colleague’s wedding despite making enough excuses, says he hated the fact that a guest accidentally touched her handbag. “The pandemic has aggravated my OCD and going to a wedding means subjecting myself to mental trauma. I tried my best to avoid going to this wedding but had to attend it. I was scared about being accidentally touched by someone and wore a PPE over my beautiful salwar-kameez throughout. It did look funny, but I didn’t want to risk my safety at any cost,” said the 29-year-old, adding, “I have resolved to not attend any wedding until coronavirus just goes away from the face of this earth,” she shared.

Bhook jaaye par praan na jaaye

It’s not just the fear of being touched or coughed upon that is preventing guests from attending weddings in the current scenario. Sandhya Singh, an HR professional from Pune, stayed hungry at a wedding. In fact, she didn’t even sit on a chair throughout the function nor touched the water bottles being served. “I kept rubbing sanitiser on my hands every five minutes. I didn’t even have food at the venue fearing the infection,” she said.