Hyderabad, April 11: Exasperated by relentless controversies, Sania Mirza’s family finally decided to feed the media feeding frenzy surrounding April 15 marriage of the tennis star and beleaguered bridegroom Shoaib Malik. They appointed a spokesperson for the wedding and let out colourful stories of the happy tidings within the household.
On Friday night, we learnt, that the Malliks and the Mirzas played dumb charades and antakshari. Sania’s aunts cooked up the tennis star’s favourite Chinese dishes, but her urge to go out for some bhel puri was put paid to by the presence of media hordes outside.
So the night ended with a game of carroms, which was won by Sania’s mother Naseema and the boy Shoaib.
These silly-season nuggets were provided by the appointed spokesperson Rucha Naik on secondment from a PR agency.
Said to be a close friend of Sania, Naik surprised the waiting and weary media at the family’s residence by announcing that henceforth and until the April 15 betrothal she would be the official oracle. She appeared inexperienced but held her own in front of a battery of media cameras. She told Express later, “When I came out today, there were only ten reporters and soon there were 45.’’ The media had it on the authority of Ms Naik herself that Shoania have not moved from beleaguered couple to besotted couple. Friends and relatives — Shoiab’s mother, brother, sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew — have arrived. The wedding invitations are in the process of being despatched and around 1000 guests are expected for the reception at Taj Krishna. And there is a Sangeet planned for April 13.
Spokesperson or not, a minor controversy did manage rear its head on Saturday. Apparently, Shoaib Mailk pencilled in his father’s name differently in the certificate divorce from his first wife Ayesha Siddiqui and in his wedding invitation. However, the dust settled later in the day, after police clarified that both names belonged to the cricketer’s father, one being an alias.
The marriage card had the paterfamilias’s name as Malik Fakeer Hussain. And in the much-debated Ayesha nikahnamah and talaknama he was rendered as Malik Salim Hussain. So the day ended.
–Agencies