India, Aug. 28 -- On a crisp November afternoon in 1990, the living room of a modest two-bedroom flat in Mayur Vihar Phase I was transformed into a makeshift wedding hall. Neighbours strung marigold garlands across the ceiling, plated laddoos were distributed on borrowed trays, and people hummed film songs while waiting for the bride to appear.

The bride on that day, Sunita Kapoor, now 62, remembers the scene vividly.

"It was not grand, but it was the kind of warmth small gatherings of close friends and families brought. Everyone pitched in - someone lent us lights, someone brought extra chairs," she recalled, seated in the same flat more than three decades later, where she now lives with her elderly mother.

The house was the pride of ...