The Wedding Tamasha!

The shine and shimmer of lehengas, the fragrance of beautifully drawn peacocks by mehandi, the blissful dancing in front of the ghodi, sizzling food, the celebrations and rituals, all served on the same day. Don’t you just love Indian weddings? Families coming together, sleepless nights spent away in happy chattering, pains to look your best in the crowd of a thousand people, trying to recognize long forgotten relatives and friends, it indeed is an adventure! An Indian wedding is a cultural retreat. It has everything that makes the culture special and unique. The colors, huge families, spicy food, dhols, rituals and the list goes on. But there’s one reason due to which it really is special. And that reason is the mystery associated with it.

To understand the mystery I will go through the process of the Wedding Tamasha. You think it starts with when you turn 25? No you are wrong! In fact it starts with the moment you are born. The moment your parents see you for the first time, they start building up a dream wedding for you in their minds and hence the savings start, even more so rigorously if you are a girl. Now the journey has started, with your parents right behind you “protecting” you from the opposite sex so that it does not bring “disgrace” to the family. Years go by as you are molded to be the perfect candidate for a marriage. And when you turn “the marriageable age” your education, family background and assets are measured, a price tag is put on you and you are sent up on a pedestal to be “auctioned” off to the highest bidder. If by God’s grace a deal is struck, you can start getting to know your fiance. And love? Well that can wait till after the wedding, after all you have entire life ahead of you for that!

Coming primarily to marriage, defying all the technical definitions Google has provided I believe that marriage is a holy union of two souls. As a living being we have been bestowed with a beating heart that is answering to the rhythms of someone’s breaths. If you find this, you might have found love. I know the idea is highly romanticized but think about it! If two people could spend a lifetime together by a mere deal why would there be any kind of love in the world? The word “love” might sound a little overrated but that’s how God intended universe to be. Every relationship could be on paper, relationship between you and your parents, friends. Who is to say what amount of money can buy your kids a good relationship, a happy marriage. For love can be realized, felt but never learnt or faked.

I hate the Wedding Tamasha because the path it takes is disgraceful. I despise the sales, the price tags, markets and an attempt at bargaining. I hate the stereotypes it drags with itself. I hate that the idea has been dramatized and glamorized to such an extent that it might have lost its meaning. I might me out on a limb here, but I stand by what I believe. The Tamasha has gone on for too long and it needs to stop.