The groom, along with his family had to suffer a lot to travel to his native town through all the violence that was taking place all along.

Ridwan said that the bride, who is an American, with a few relatives came to Bangladesh for the first time. Their experience from the time of arrival at the Zia International Airport till they reached the wedding venue was heart breaking due to the opposition's Dhaka siege programme.

"There was no transport when they arrived in Dhaka on Saturday (October 28). We had to hire an ambulance and the guests had to pretend to be patients travelling to Tangail," said Ridwan, a senior software engineer of City Group in USA.

"All my guests were able to see only a chaotic situation where people were chasing each other with sticks and other weapons, and burning tyres along the road," said Ridwan.

"The way the country repays our contribution to its economy is very painful," the expatriate Bangladeshi added.

He said he came to Bangladesh with a desire to have his wedding with his kith and kin, but his dreams were shattered because of the political situation.

The political unrest centering the handover of power to the caretaker government in the country has stalled most planned programmes including weddings, conferences, meetings and even press conferences as public life has come to a virtual standstill.

Dhaka Sheraton Hotel authorities said they had to cancel a number of programmes scheduled for three days amid the political unrest.

Besides aforesaid wedding ceremony, a Rotary Club meeting scheduled on October 28, and two programmes scheduled for October 29 have been cancelled.

"We had three programmes scheduled for October 30, but our clients did not hold these because of political situation," said a hotel official.

He also said that besides the sufferings of their clients the hotel is losing much business.

Although the Eid vacation did not show much business for community centres in the city, they too were faced with reschedules or cancellations of the handful of programmes that they already had.

"We had to cancel the programme that was scheduled on Saturday. The kitchen rations are not yet available, and moreover most of our employees could not return on time," said Shamsur Rahman, manager, Party Palace, a community centre in Dhanmondi.

"We spent the whole day behind closed doors and windows, whereas otherwise there would have been a wedding taking place," Rahman said.

On the other hand the wedding programme at Sugandha Community Centre on the Satmasjid Road on Saturday (the first day of political violence in the city during last Dhaka siege programme), was not cancelled, and the authorities were in a dilemma over shopping groceries and whether or not the number of guests would arrive.

They too suffered a lot as most guests were unable to attend the ceremony and there was much food that went waste.

"The political situation has put us through a strange dilemma that we never experienced before," said Mohammad Khalilur Rahman, the manager. "There were just a handful of guests we did not know what to do with the left over food," he added.

People who had to postpone or reschedule their programmes said uncertainty provoked them to take such decisions.

"Most of my guests said they were not willing or unable to come out of their homes because of the political chaos and instead of making preparations I cancelled the programme," said Rafiqul Islam, a bridegroom whose reception was to take place on Saturday.

Beside other losses he had to pay 20 percent of the rent to the community centre authority as per contract.

"When the situation turns normal, I will have to make fresh preparations," he said.

Anisul Haque, father of a bride whose wedding was to be held at Naya Paltan on Saturday was very disappointed as he was unable to complete the programme.

"I wonder why I had to choose this particular time for my daughter's wedding," he said. "I just wanted to give my daughter away in the presence of all my near and dear ones but the fighting between the political parties prompted me to postpone the wedding indefinitely, although I had made all preparations," he added.

Beside the ceremonial and official programmes a number cultural programmes were cancelled. The 2nd German-Bangla Poetry Festival organised by Meghdut Abriti Sangsad and Goethe Institute, Dhaka is one such programme that has been postponed. The festival that was scheduled from October 27 to 29 will now be held from November 10 to 12, the organisers said in a press release on Saturday.

Schools, colleges and universities in the city that were scheduled to be reopened this week after the Eid vacation but had to be remained closed as the authorities did not want to take any risk with the lives of their students.

Many of these institutes including the Dhaka University have already re-scheduled the vacation while others are likely to be opened from next week.