THE BIG FAT INDIAN WEDDING

Indian wedding extravaganza has grown into a social evil today. Marriages
have become a costly affair huge amount of money is lavishly spend on
decorations, processions, band sets ,video shooting, music ,orchestra ,film
stars as guest ,exotic locations, food, travel and so on .It is estimated that in
India every year 34,000$ to 2 million dollars are wasted on weddings .
Marriage and family, the two social institutions, they are complimentary to
each other and forms the pillars of the society. Weddings have been in
existence since time immemorial. In India marriages have never been looked
at from the materialistic point of view but now the scenario has changed
because India is developing and the middle cast of Indian society is
becoming rich and they are using wedding as a medium to showcase their
wealth and class.
Latest studies show that 15% of grains and vegetables produced in India are
wasted on weddings every year, which is more than enough to improve the
pathetic condition of under -nourished children in rural India.
The record holder for the worlds most expensive wedding is of an IndianLakshmi Mittal. Indian billionaire Mittals daughter vanishas wedding was the
worlds most expensive wedding according to Forbes magazine. It also ranks
in the Guinness Book of records for the most expensive wedding ever
recorded- around $78 million dollars were spent on this wedding.
Weddings have grown into a business; millions of dollars are being invested.
Wedding planners and Bollywood stars are making millions from this
marriage market . Filmstars like sharukh khan demands 3-4 crore rupees for
a special appearance or a dance performance.
The wedding planning industry is booming in India. Many educational
institutions are now offering courses on this topic. Wedding planners plans
and executes the wedding so that the family members
can enjoy the
ceremony, they just have to pay for the management, the planners do
everything from choosing the color of the garland to honeymoon locations.
Planners offer a range of wedding varieties from simple weddings to theme
based weddings, like fairytale wedding.
They will plan the ceremony, organize them, finds exotic locations for the
wedding.they do everything from seating arrangement to catering

services. Even Bollywood stars are making profit from this industry. All these
are happening when nation is facing the economic depressions and when
aam aadmi is groaning under inflation.
Dowry also adds to the expense. Most people consider it as a status symbol
to give kilos of gold and acres of land as dowry. Theres no rich orpoor when
it comes to gold though the price of gold is touching the sky. India imports
3000 tons of gold every year.
Food minister K V Thomas recently criticized luxurious weddings in India. He
proposed adopting the policy followed by the government of Pakistan, where
there is limitations on wedding luxury. He said that Government considers
curbing this waste of money, for this a panel is formed to check the money
spent on weddings like the maximum number of guests who can be invited
for wedding, maximum amount of food that can be served in a wedding.
In spite of all this Indias divorce rate, though lowest in the world (1.1%), is
increasing at an alarming rate. Because of industrialization, urbanization and
empowerment of women-they also have joined men in the process of finding
out jobs and earning money. Men could no longer boss over women and
suppress their attempt to become self reliant, these developments have
affected the institution of marriage.
Marriages are no longer considered as sacred in our society, like the dialogue
from the movie beautiful- Marriage is a license to have an extra marital
affair.
Marriage has lost its value then why this much money is wasted for
celebrating wedding instead of feeding the poor population. Why $3 million
dollars wasted every year when it is enough to feed 65 million hungry people
in India.

By
Surya Venu