For those who get running water at the turn of a knob in their houses, this may sound somewhat outlandish, even bizarre. Hundreds of young men are being forced to lead a bachelor's life and hundreds of young girls prefer being "sold" outside the state rather than marry in their own state and the villain in this situation is water. Marriages are being cancelled, postponed and called-off at the last minute in the Bundelkhand region due to paucity of water. Om Prakash Tiwari, a timber merchant in Banda, called-off his second daughter's wedding, scheduled to be held on Sunday, because he had no water to satiate the thirst of the baraatis. "I frantically begged for water tankers but the munic ipal office refused to give me one. They said that they had no tankers for such occasions and all tankers had been kept in reserve for VIP visits. The wells in and around my house (on the outskirts of Banda) have dried up and even the taps remain dry during the day. The groom's father had said that there would be over a hundred baraatis at the wedding and then I would have had my own guests too. I had no means to provide water to the guests so I decided to call-off the wedding at the last minute," said the distraught father. Prakash Pasi, a peon in a private bank in Jalaun district, also cancelled his daughter's wedding this month for very "watery" reasons. "My daughter was to marry in Geenj village near Shankargarh in Allahabad when one of my uncles informed me that the village faces an acute water problem. The women there have to walk six kilometres every morning, throughout the year, to bring water. My daughter said that she would not be able to cope with such a situation and after much deliberation, we cancelled the wedding," he said.