Monday, July 14, 2014

Author's take on Big Fat Indian Weddings

(Disclaimer: Please bear with my unpolished approach towards an interesting topic which might be crude at times, but I hope you would take a note of the points that I'm intending to express)

This is a controversial topic to start off with which involves sensitive hearts and bonds that revolve around two families who would soon be bound by all the forces of nature. So bear in mind that the article provides a first person perspective of Indian marriages and it is strongly appreciated not to get involved into a personal level.

It was a long time since I enjoyed a scrumptious dinner buffet at one of my friend's marriage recently, and after wishing them the regular "congratulations and have a happy married life" stuff and giving away a decent gift with my hard earned money,

hoping that some day I would be treated in the same manner, my thoughts began to drift away seeing the happy bride and the groom (who would obviously be happy in the first month because of some obvious reasons which i hope you all know) into carefully chosen realm escaping the immoral thoughts of after marriage phenomenon. It is regarding the hardcore fact that Indian marriages are one of the most opulent, flamboyantly pompous, unfathomably large celebrations that would consume half of the family fortune and would increase the electricity consumption by a significant manifold.

The Overture
The history dates back to the ages of ancient HINDU Mythology where the six-packed Lord Rama takes over the lousy looking Ravan in a battle for the beautiful babe Sita. After defeating Ravan in a strange case of "break the bow contest" whose bumper price was Sita, there was a phenomenal change in the position of Rama in people's hearts, where people started investing their hard earned money on the wedding to celebrate the victory of good over evil.
The then King Mr.Dusharadh who also happened to be the father of Rama, then made a public announcement that he was delighted with Rama's performance and would celebrate the wedding in a way which only the Gods could challenge. This was the beginning of the extravagant weddings in India.
          This continued with the generations that passed on the tradition of trading gold and other expensive gifts for a flamboyant wedding. The same case went on in the age of the playboy Lord Krishna, who in-spite of having innumerable affairs with around 16,000 girl friends, married only two women for the fear of loosing out on his family fortune if he had to marry all the women that he ever dated.
 
Interlude:
Enough of the past and let's jump back into the modern age of XBOX and PlayStations, where money seem to be flowing along with the technology. If we have a quick glance at some of the big fat Indian weddings, (and when I say big fat Indian weddings, I mean real big fat bad ass weddings) we can easily conclude that the Indian economy has evolved into a level where people don't care of the expenditure when it comes to getting their off springs married. Following are some of the excerpts from the weddings in India which made a significant mark worldwide:
  • In 2004, Lucknow had a luck in gazing at one of the ostentatious weddings of Subrata Roy’s sons Sushanto with Richa and Seemanto with Chandini and let me remind you that India has never seen such marriages till that moment. There was a heavy downpour of money and the Sahara chief made sure that it would be remembered through out the world by investing almost
    552 crore Indian rupees into the wedding.
  • In the same year Lakshmi Mittal- the steel giant  of the world had spent a fortune of his strategically earned money into getting his daughter married which was the second biggest wedding to date, for the fear of losing out on the status quo. The cost of the wedding was estimated to be around $60 million.
  • In 2011, Congress Minister Kanwar Singh Tanwar’s son, Lalit’s wedding to Yogita Jaunapuria took place in Delhi with the in laws gifting him a Bell 429 helicopter as the wedding present. The wedding is estimated to be priced around 250 crore Indian rupees.
There is a sense of joy in celebrating this once in a lifetime moment with a spectacular display of  wealth, but I must remind you that this kind of public display of wealth is changing the style of weddings in India and influencing the common man's thought process. Am not going to judge the system or make a bold statement regarding the extravagant Indian style of celebrating the marriages which involves lavish marriage halls or horse driven chariots just to show off the family savings in this status driven society.
          I would like to stress upon the fact that now there has come a situation where in an ordinary man who would have to strive hard on saving money for a long term peaceful life is being forced to satiate his child's demand of a pompous wedding in order to maintain a decent stature in the society. The Indian weddings are no longer a ceremony for bonding two people but an occasion to display the wealth that an individual possess. I have witnessed families who have used up an entire fortune in looking after the comforts of the people who just attend the wedding for the sake of food and no longer bother about the well being of the bride or groom.

Conclude:
So, being diplomatic and analyzing this system from close quarters as far as I'm concerned, I find it annoying to digest the fact that people are pouring out their hard earned money into getting their offspring married by arranging for high level buffets, booking fancy cars, or acquiring marriage halls whose rents for over a night sore high. As everyone of us want to have a wedding that would be remembered throughout the life, I would advise the youth to think wise and stay conscious while spending a bomb for a single day, and instead invest the same on the well being of the couple who would share their lives for the rest of the years to come. After all, money saved is money earned.



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