Madikeri: Close on the heels of a particular Kodava Samaja organisation deciding to discourage inter-caste marriages among the Kodava youth, a same-sex marriage of a Kodava man has shocked the entire district.
The wedding of Sharath Ponnappa, a doctor and his companion Sadeep Dosanj, held as per Kodava traditions in California has shocked the Kodavas.
Sharath Ponnappa had settled down in the USA about 20 years ago and it is here that he met Dosanj. The two fell in love with each other and finally on September 26, the two entered the wedlock in a traditional Kodava wedding ceremony.
The pictures of this wedding has gone viral and this has irked many conservative Kodavas, who feel that the two should have not have made a mockery out of the Kodava tradition by getting married wearing Kodava attire.
“Such a shocking episode has never happened in the history of Kodagu,” say many.
Meanwhile, Madikeri Kodava Samaja has written to Kodava Samaja Okkoota in America to give clarification on the same.
Madikeri Kodava Samaja President K S Devaiah has said that the Okkoota will be asked to ostracise Sharath Ponnappa from the community.
United Kodava Organisation President Manju Chinnappa has said that the wedding and the fact that it took place as per Kodava tradition has hurt the Kodava sentiments.
Sharath had completed his early school in Ramakrishnashram, Mysuru and left to the USA for his higher studies. His father Jaya Kumar is an engineer and his mother Nalini is a doctor. They are settled in Dubai.
