Bihar (PTI): What started as a mischievous joke played by the bride’s friends revealed a bitter 
truth that led to the marriage being cancelled. The bride called off the marriage after the groom reportedly failed to count the currency notes given to him by her friends, minutes before the most important ritual of “saptapadi”—the seven steps around the fire.
The incident took place at Maritar village in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia district on Saturday. Asha, a graduate, was to be married to Ashok (both names changed), a resident of the Buxar district in Bihar. After a few initial rituals, the groom was taken to a room by the bride’s friends, where they gave him some currency notes and asked him to count. “It was just a playful joke,” said one of the friends. Much to the shock and dismay of the girls, the groom failed to count the notes. It raised their suspicion that he might be illiterate, and they informed the bride of the incident. The bride then refused to go ahead with the marriage.
The elders from both sides intervened and tried to persuade the bride to change her decision, but she remained adamant. A panchayat was also convened to settle the matter, but ultimately, the wedding party returned without the bride as she refused to budge. The groom’s parents were also reportedly made to return the gifts and cash the bride’s family had given for the marriage.
The incident comes barely weeks after a bride walked out from her marriage ceremony in the state’s Kanpur Dehat district after the groom failed to answer a simple mathematical question-where an Indian bride walked out of her wedding ceremony after the groom failed to solve a simple math problem, police said . The bride tested the groom on his math skills and when he got the sum wrong, she walked out.
The question she asked: How much is 15 plus six? His reply: 17. The incident took place in Rasoolabad village near the industrial town of Kanpur in northern Uttar Pradesh state. The groom’s family tried persuading the bride to return, but she refused. She said the groom had misled them about his education. Local police mediated between the families and both sides returned all the gifts and jewelry that had been exchanged before the wedding.
In February, another bride in Uttar Pradesh married a wedding guest after the original groom had a seizure and collapsed at the wedding venue. The groom’s family had not revealed that the groom was epileptic. While the groom was rushed to a hospital in Rampur town, the bride asked one of the wedding guests to step in and married him.
