Children by their side, Tharoor and Pushkar tie knot

It was Kanishk and Ishan, Tharoor's sons from his first marriage to Tilottama Mukherji, who called Sunanda Amma and welcomed her to the Tharoor family. Sunanda gave them a hug and was speechless as she got emotional. Soon she was joined by Shiv, Sunanda's son from her marriage to Sujit Menon, sources said.

Former Union minister Shashi Tharoor, 54, and his Kashmiri friend Sunanda Pushkar, 48, tied the knot on Sunday morning in the presence of their children and close relatives at his ancestral home here, 408 km from state capital Thiruvananthapuram.

The simple and elegant ceremony, attended by around 100 guests and lasting barely an hour, was rich in rituals of upper class Hindu Nairs, the Kerala community to which Tharoor belongs.

The wedding, held at the 200-year-old Mundarath Home where Tharoor's grandmother Jayasinkini Amma lives now, was by and large a private function, except for the presence of Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar and former Indian diplomat T P Sreenivasan. No Congress leader from Palakkad district turned up. Jacob Joseph, the controversial OSD to Tharoor during his stint as the Minister of State for External Affairs, was also absent.