India's first cyber wedding on the Net today

India's first cyber wedding on the Net today
PALLAVA BAGLA

NEW DELHI, MARCH 14: India's main government-controlled Internet gateway has now taken on the mantle of organising a cyber wedding. Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) has joined hands with the Internet User's Club of India (IUCI) to bring what it calls amongst the first ``Internet-Weddings'' of the world.

Standing by in cyber space to oversee the wedding will be the evergreen Bollywood actor Shammi Kapoor, the chairman of IUCI, and the government witness will be none other than VSNL's Director of Operations Amitabh Kumar.

`An internet wedding represents the coming together of tradition and technology,' says a release from India's key Internet link to the world. At this wedding, the world audience shall get a chance to witness a traditional Indian wedding with the full rites being performed on-line, adds the VSNL release.

These won't be just video clippings, but a website in the true sense of websites. The cyber wedding of Vijay Mukhi to Sonal can be witnessed at www.vijaywedssonal.com at 7.00 pm IST on Wednesday, March 15, 2000. The wedding wil be truly interactive in the sense that `cyber baraatis' will be able to shower wishes upon the newly-wed couple and will be able to hear and read the shlokas being chanted in cyberland.

Critics of the cyber wedding describe it as a publicity stunt of VSNL and note that scarce resources should have been better spent on ensuring better connectivity and higher speeds than on giving out `cyber kanyadan'.