Chennai, Aug 28(NDTV): Nine days after their wedding, the cross-culture romance between a man from Tamil Nadu and a woman from Belgium is still tangled in red tape. And though the district officials have stepped in, it appears that the bride may have to return to Belgium before she can call India her home.

It is a matter of caste-based discrimination, alleged Suresh Kumar, who had met Sarah Roggeman at a ship where they both worked.

Ms Roggeman, a catering professional like Mr Kumar, says she has fallen in love with India as well. And she has come to settle here, leaving behind a restaurant in Belgium she partly owns.

The local temple at Namakkal district had refused to solemnize their wedding, Mr Kumar said. But now that they got married at a small temple, the delay in generating documents from it is holding up the registration .

"I belong to scheduled tribe community... Now I've married a white woman, they are still creating problems," said Mr Kumar, whose family is from Tamil Nadu's Kolli Hills.

The temple officials, who refused to speak on record, said they were helpless, since Ms Roggeman is a Christian and a foreigner and they have no provision to solemnize that kind of a wedding.

Disappointed, her family has already departed for home. Unless help comes soon, the young overseas bride will also have to follow suit - at least for a while.

What drew her towards Suresh? "He was so helpful... I used to wait for his calls and realised I'm in love with him," Ms Roggeman explained.

And despite the bumpy start to her Indian Odyssey, she insists that she loves the "culture and tradition". "Without registering our wedding I can't get a proper visa to come back and live in India. I want to live here," she said