After a private - family and close friends only - wedding ceremony earlier in the morning, the Murthys threw open the Leela for a Narayan Murthy's daughterlarge reception for over 1,000 people on Sunday afternoon.
The venue, decorated with coconut fronds woven with flowers, and banana trees - considered auspicious for weddings
- looked like the perfect marriage setting. It was chock-a-block with nattily turned out guests. CEOs and politicos rubbed shoulders with old family retainers to give the event an eclectic touch.
Akshata, the bride, was resplendent in a beautiful orange ghagra teamed with a cream sleeveless choli and elegant jewellery, while groom Rishi Sunak opted for a grey-blue suit and salmon-pink tie. Flanking the couple on the dais were the two sets of parents: the Murthys and Sunaks. The bride's brother, Rohan Murty, in panche and kurta, mingled with the guests.
Narayana Murthy's partners in Infosys: CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan, his long-time protege and current chief of UIDAI, Nandan Nilekani, HR head Mohandas Pai and their spouses played hosts as they greeted every guest and added a personal touch to the event.
Vallabh Bhansali of Enam, one of the earliest believers in the Infosys story and who shepherded the company's initial public listing, Baba Kalyani of Kalyani group, K V Kamath, former CEO of ICICI and a board member of Infosys, were among the early guests. So were Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and his wife Isher and son.
One of Infosys' earliest business partners, Ashang Desai of Mastek, and Ashok Patni of Patni Computers also attended the reception. Murthy and his co-founders were employed at Patni before leaving to start Infosys.
Guests included Bangalore's A list: there was cricketer Anil Kumble with wife Chetana, Syed Kirmani, badminton stalwart Prakash Padukone and his wife. Also seen were Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel and his wife, senior Congress politicians Mallikarjun Kharge and R V Deshpande, and state BJP minister Katta Subramanya Naidu.
Industrialists turned out in full strength - Wipro chairman Azim Premji, MindTree chairman Ashok Soota, Dr Sridhar Mitta of e4e, IBM India MD Shanker and Titan Industries MD Bhaskar Bhat with their spouses. Cafe Coffee Day chairman V G Siddhartha, Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and husband John Shaw were seen meeting old friends.
The lavish spread was traditional South Indian: different kinds of kosambaris (cucumber, carrot and dal salad), dahi vadas along with tamarind rice, bisi bele bath (Karnataka special), idiappams, huli majjige, rotis and puris for the main course with traditional sweets like jalebi and kheer for dessert.
Mangalore mallige (jasmine) flowers given to the guests added fragrance to a celebrated Bangalore wedding.
