India celebrates about 10 million weddings per year. Weddings in India are no less than 3 big christmas parties to say the least. People give a great deal of importance to the weddings. The celebration for one wedding goes to three days minimum and a week maximum. The rich spend an exorbitant amount to show off and the poor try to copy them and end up being under a big load of loans. From Destination weddings to huge dowry/ gifts, extraordinary display of clothes and jewellery and enormous variety and wastage of food. Weddings are a one time affair in Indian Culture, but too much to get over easily.
India is still recovering from two back-to-back celebrity weddings but it’s already time for the next one. This time it’s the children of two Indian billionaires, who are all set for what promises to be the next level of big fat Indian weddings.Who can afford to spend nearly $4100 on a single invite, yes the Ambani family has done that. The Wedding took place on December 12th. Celebrities had been invited from all over the world, much to mention Hillary Clinton. Beyonce attended the wedding and performed too. The last time a wedding of an Indian businessman’s family got this much attention was in 2004. That year the family spent nearly $55 Million on a wedding..which also included gifts for family friends. Its not that only extremely rich people who spend that kind of amount, its the middle class that gets into the league and spends more than what they can afford. Dowry has been a social problem in India, but the people who give fancy gifts,like Mercedes, Range Rovers,houses to their daughters create problems for those who cannot afford to give such gifts.
These big fat weddings are not happening in India only, but In US and Canada too. The hotels in US and Canada are providing customised services when it comes to weddings which has become an Industry in itself. Staff is specially trained for different kinds of foods, service and events. According to the survey it has been revealed that on an average an Indian family spends nearly $400,000 to $ 800,000 or may be more on a single wedding.
Since this trend is catching up like fire, there are sensible people who are learned and have worked hard for the money.They have different ways to celebrate their wedding in more sensible manner.Last year, a young Hyderabad couple made headlines when they planned their wedding in the most unconventional way. They donated Rs 20,000 each to the families of 10 farmers who were very poor and were under debt because of losses in their farming practice, and also gave away books worth Rs 52,000 to libraries. When India’s first bachelor adopted a special child, Aditya Tiwari got married, his ceremony was a noble affair, with 10,000 orphan children and homeless in attendance.Some people plant trees, provide food to homeless and hungry people. It gets us thinking. Why the big fat weddings??? Not only in India, everywhere in the world, let’s put a stop to the ruthless expenditure and make judicious use of our own hard earned money. Lets stop pleasing people who really don’t care about this money, your loans, debts or even care about you. Not a single wedding have I seen where people don’t criticise after eating the extraordinary variety of food and enjoying the festivities. A bill was even proposed by a few learned people in India which hoped to put limit on the number of guests and money in a wedding. I really wish there should be some sort of regulation to such a spending. I hope to see such a bill passed soon in coming time. It is shocking to see a lifestyle “flex” occurring in modern society today.