Man bathes in hot milk for Ash-Abhi

New Delhi: After speculations regarding the date for Bollywood’s most talked about wedding were finally put to rest, the fans of Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan are now wishing that the star couple have a blissful married life.

However, 50-year-old Bhani Bhagat from Varanasi took a bath with scalding milk praying to wish for the couple’s successful married life.

''This is the Gwal-Bal puja done by my ancestors for appeasing the heavenly powers especially Goddess Durga and Shitla for public prosperity, especially for granting blissful married life to would be and newly married couples,'' news agency UNI quoted Bhagat as saying after taking the fuming bath amid a swollen crowd of devouts.

Bhagat took bath with scalding milk, ghee and kheer amid the beating of drums as an offering to Goddess Durga in the Saptsagar area in Varanasi.

The prayer is usually offered to usher prosperity to the entire nation. But this time it was different.

Before Bhani Bhagat also other people like Paanchu Bhagat and Kashi Bhagat have performed the scalding feat for appeasing Goddess Durga to usher prosperity to the entire nation and not only this locality alone. This year, however, we added another prayer to Bhani

Bhagat's cause by requesting him to pray for blissful marital life to the Junior Bachchan and the former Miss World,''the organisers of the special prayers said.

“This special prayer not only ushers prosperity into lives of household in form of wealth, children and healthy life, but is of special significance for the blissful married life to newly married couples and for those whose wedding is to be solemenised shortly,” Bhagat was quoted as saying.

“As per belief this prayer signifies the ecstasy of Goddess Durga who dances and bathes with scalding milk, ghee and kheer for prosperity of devouts,” he added.

The organisers of the ritual said that though Bhagat has been performing the ritual for the last 15 years, “this year, however, the special prayer was made especially for granting blisfful married life to all newly married and would be couples including the picture-perfect Ash and Abhishek,”