CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Many married couples have pet names for one another; for Chicagoan Raj Sarathy and his husband, that pet name is “rat.”
“We have this joke where he's, like, the rattiest husband in the world,” Sarathy said.
When the couple's social media feeds started filling with images of the animal-shaped impression on a Roscoe Village sidewalk — which has become known as the “rat hole” — Sarathy said taking the next step was a no-brainer.
“I looked my partner in the eye, and I said, ‘You know what? We need to get married at the rat hole,’” he recounted. “Immediately, I could tell in his face ... it was meant to be. If you're going to act like a rat, we're getting married at the rat hole.”
Sarathy and his now-husband were married over the weekend in a hastily arranged ceremony over the rat hole, located on the sidewalk at 1918 West Roscoe Street, in front of an audience of dozens of friends and passers-by.
The newlyweds memorialized their union by pouring beverages, including Malört, into the hole, which just days earlier survived an amateur attempt to fill it in with plaster.
Sarathy said his longtime friend, event planner Lica Sato-Keane, had just nine days to put together the ceremony, which included constructing a balloon arch in pale shades of ivory, pink and light blue — and making sure that the people who live steps from the site were on board.
“I was all for it,” said Sato-Keane, whose business Lilo Entertainment includes body art and balloon arrangements. “I’ve known Raj forever and he's always had, like, very extravagant ideas.”
The wedding was the latest event to draw attention to the hole, which experts believe was actually caused by a squirrel falling into wet cement more than a decade ago. People in Roscoe Village have stepped over the cavity without incident for years, but it became widely known a few weeks ago after someone posted an image of it on TikTok.
It has since become a shrine, with passers-by even throwing coins into it.
The newlyweds said they were committing to the bit for their honeymoon — focusing on cities famous for their rat populations, starting with New York and, eventually, continuing on to Singapore.
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