Hotmail Founder to get married in Langkawi

Hotmail Founder, Sabeer Bhatia would be getting married in Langkawi Island on March 9. This is definitely a great news for our tourism industry, where his wedding in Langkawi would bring upon attention from around the world.

As a Malaysian, this would be a great boost to the image of Malaysia. And who knows, Sabeer would get the chance to take a peek at our General Election, which is expected to happen then too!

Quoted in full from Bernama
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Hotmail Founder Sabeer To Marry In Exotic Langkawi

By P. Vijian

NEW DELHI, Feb 6 (Bernama) -- Hotmail founder, Indian-born Sabeer Bhatia, who became an overnight millionaire after selling his web-based e-mail service to Microsoft, plans to get hitched in Langkawi Island next month.

Sabeer, 40, chose Langkawi as his preferred venue to wed Tania Sharma, on March 9, and dignitaries from far and wide are expected to bless the marriage at the Taj Rebak Marina Resort located on the world famous island.

"We wanted an exclusive island for the wedding. Sabeer wanted to have it in Hawaii but it would be too far for our guests. We were thinking of Phuket, Bangkok or Koh Samui (Thailand) but decided on Langkawi," R.K. Sharma, the father of the bride-to-be, told Bernama.

About 270 dignitaries including bigwigs like Indian steel king Lakshmi Mittal's brother Pramod Mittal and India's Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel are on the guest list.

"Langkawi is an exclusive island and we have booked the entire hotel for our guests. The event is for two days, the first day is for the sangeet ceremony (pre-wedding ceremony of dance and music) and the wedding is on March 9th," added Sharma.

The Langkawi cable car is also said to have been booked for two hours on March 9 for the wedding party, where the guests will be entertained by musicians, deejays, and singers specially flown in from India.

The computer wizard, who sold Hotmail for a whopping US$400 million in 1997, just before his 30th birthday, was once engaged to a US-based Indian corporate lawyer in 2004 but the three-month engagement fell apart.

Sabeer, the son of a military officer, was born in Chandigarh, Punjab and graduated from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India and later completed his Masters programme in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University.

Sabeer got engaged to Tania, a Mumbai-based businesswoman and the heiress of the Baidyanath Group, one of the largest manufacturers of ayurvedic medicine in India, last December.

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