Muvattupuzha MLA Eldo Varghese is a man who understands the importance of wedding invitations and the sentiments behind it. So much that the MLA has sent out almost 5,000 invites for his wedding to Dr Aggie Mary Augustine on January 12, Sunday.
Eldo’s wedding invite is not the usual foldable card with exquisite designs and colour scheme. It is a simple paper, with the message — which begins with “dear friend” — printed on the letterhead of the MLA’s office.
For the CPI MLA, personally, it was important to invite every person he has met or shaken hands with at least once. It was during his elder sister’s wedding in 1993 that he realised its value.
“The financial situation at my house was not great when my sister got a marriage proposal. We hardly had the money to buy her gold. It is an aunt who helped us by giving Rs 5,000, with which we bought her jewellery. But my sister expressed one wish — she wanted to invite some of her friends who studied with her in Karnataka,” recalled Eldo.
It was a time when they did not have a telephone at home and it was considered a luxury otherwise. When the family decided to send wedding cards instead, their father said he had no money. “My sister then asked me for help. We then went to a press in Muvattupuzha, where, with great difficulty, my sister and I managed to print the most inexpensive cards,” he recounted. “I have saved that wedding card like a treasure even today,” he added.
That was when, Eldo says, he started realising the importance of wedding cards. “I started collecting the cards of whatever weddings I was invited to when I was the panchayat member for 10 years,” he says.
Eldo's wedding invitation
Hence, when it was Eldo’s turn to get married, he wanted to invite everyone he knew. Before he became an MLA, he was also a panchayat ward member and that meant he used to come across a lot of people as part of his work.
“I have sent invitations to nearly 5,000 people. Of these, I have invited around 2,000 in person,” Eldo says, adding, “Many of these people are those who helped me at various stages of my life, as a student, a politician and a citizen.”
And the 5,000 guests, Eldo says, is the highlight of his wedding. “Otherwise, it will be a simple wedding with the usual ceremonies,” he adds.
The bride, Aggie, is an Ayurvedic doctor with her own clinic in Muvattupuzha. Interestingly, in an interview to Manorama, she says she votes for the Congress party, the political rival of the Communist Party (CPI) in Kerala. The obvious question was if she would switch to CPI after the wedding.
“It wouldn’t be right to change parties because one gets married. If I want to be in the Communist party of my own accord, then I should. As of now, I am voting for Congress,” Aggie says in the interview, as Eldo nods in agreement.
The wedding will take place at the Kunnakurudy St George Jacobite Syrian church and the reception at the Muvattupuzha municipal stadium.