BALLARI: To make his wedding card memorable, Ballari-based botanist Sai Sandeep has found a unique way to invite his guests. He used watermelons as invitations. Sai Sandeep, the Botany lecturer in Sri Guru Thipperudraswamy College in Ballari, has indeed surprised everyone. Being edible, his wedding card will not be thrown away, but will quench the thirst of his guests.
“Many people spend thousands on wedding cards, which usually end in trash. The watermelon will never go waste as people will consume it. It saves money on printing cards,” says Sandeep. Sandeep further said, “I saw my colleague Thippesh’s wedding card, which was being swept away somewhere. In Hindu weddings, immense importance is given to invitation cards as they are considered auspicious. The wedding cards are printed without compromising on cost with pictures of gods and goddess on them, thinking that people will treasure them. But, the opposite happens.”
Son of a former railway employee, Sai Sandeep thought of going with fruits such as apple or mango, but since these fruits were small, he thought they would not look appealing. “We even thought of cloth napkin, which could be reused as a towel but zeroed in on watermelon due to the heat,” he explained.
“We chose locally grown small green melon than the bigger ones, so that it will be easy to carry. All we needed was to print the wedding stickers. Everyday, we get 50 melons from the Ballari APMC market, so that they remain fresh when given out,” said Pawan Kumar, a close friend of Sandeep.
Sandeep’s idea surprised his parents. “Initially, we thought he was joking. But when he said he is serious about it, we first objected, but got on the same page after hearing his motive,” said his parents, Sai Gopal and Vani Kumar.