Banaras professors in guest list for Manisha Koirala`s wedding

Varanasi: Actress Manisha Koirala`s impending nuptials to businessman Samrat Dahal will be attended by celebrities from both Nepal and India and among the guests will be two men from Varanasi who remember the actress as a pigtailed young girl from next door.

Deepak Malik, a retired Banaras Hindu University professor and Dr Surendra Pratap Singh of Kashi Vidyapeeth knew the actress from the days when her grand father, Nepal`s irst elected Prime Minister Bishweshwor Prasad Koirala, was exiled here. The patriarch lived next door to Pratap, who says that Manisha`s mother Sushma wanted her daughter to wear a maroon Banarasi sari for her big day but time constraints meant that the trousseau was bought in Mumbai. "I will fly to Kathmandu on the 17 and will gift Manisha a Banarasi sari," said Pratap who remembers the actress as an enthusiastic young girl who participated in many school plays. Manisha had attended primary school here, before moving to Delhi for higher education. The actress, 40 will tie the knot with Dahal, seven years her junior, in a gala traditional ceremony in the Nepalese capital on June 18. The `Swayambar` will take place at the luxurious Gokarna Forest Resort in eastern Kathmandu. The Koirala family will also throw a lavish party two days later at Hotel Soaltee Crowne Plaza. Manisha and Dahal have been seeing each other over the past year and their wedding date was fixed by an astrologer a few months ago. The actress has broken off two engagements in the past. She was reportedly engaged to ex-Australian ambassador to Nepal Crispin Conroy in 2001, but broke up with him soon. Last year too, the grapevine was abuzz with reports that Manisha will wed American speaker and author Christopher Dorris, but that relationship too ended. PTI