My name is Padma Sriyani. I am from the village of Beragama. Dates were finalized for our daughter’s wedding and very soon we were fully engaged in organizing the ceremony. We planned everything from its venue to food and choosing good photographers. Most people who were involved in organising the wedding insisted that alcohol should be served. I was totally against this idea. If we did serve alcohol, we would be giving a false idea to our children that alcohol is essential to have fun. I too have two children and I did not like them being exposed to false ideologies of this kind. At one point I told them that if alcohol was to be served, we will just have the registration. Some said that alcohol is served at funerals nowadays as well and asked how it was possible to hold a wedding without it. My son’s friends, husband’s friends and many of our family friends were attending the wedding and insisted that these people should be given alcohol. One of my younger brothers asked me how it was possible to dance without alcohol.

Amidst all these arguments and challenges, I managed to have the wedding alcohol free. The regular drinkers did not dance as there was no alcohol. The ladies started dancing. Then I told all the males that all these ladies were not under the influence of alcohol and that there cannot be a valid reason why they cannot dance as well. At that point, there were around 1500 people. In the end, everyone danced. If I had served alcohol there could have been many problems and fights. The ceremony went on until about 7 pm and everyone was very happy. As a mother, I am very happy as well for being able to organize and have a successful wedding ceremony of this kind.