Humungous Hindu Weddings in Full Swing

Letter from New Delhi

Elaborate preparations, unlimited shopping, and numerous events add up to grand Hindu weddings

By Kul Bhushan

Loud music. Blinking decorations. Swanky crowds. Vast banquets. Designer wear. Glittering jewellery. All this means the annual Hindu marriage season is in full swing from 12 November until 16 December in North India.

No Escape

You can’t escape it. Massive hoardings showcasing the latest jewellery worn by savvy models confront you at many traffic lights. Newspapers bulge with full-page ads promoting luxury watches, jewellery, high-end cars, and a host of other products and services targeting the wedding splurge. TV channels and social media sites are flooded with wedding ads, repeating almost non-stop.

Six Trillion

An estimated 45,000 weddings are expected this season, with around 20,000 a day. On an auspicious day, 20 November, around 50,000 weddings are expected. Police have deputed over 4,000 personnel for traffic and crowd control. All this shopping and spending will pump almost six trillion rupees as wedding budgets range from Rs 300,000 to ten million and beyond for the super-rich. Not BIG FAT but humungous and obese events. India’s richest family, the Ambanis, set a record with their son’s wedding, hosting billionaires, top global CEOs, showbiz celebrities, film stars, politicians, and the global elite, estimated to have cost around 1,000 crores (approximately 5,506,030,000 MUR, or 11,834,100 USD)!

Why Splurge

Why do Hindus go crazy splurging on family weddings? Those at the top of the social ladder want to secure their prime positions. Social climbers assert their arrival. Businesspeople and professionals aim to impress clients with wealth and style. The middle class wants to showcase aspirations for the high life, while the poor enjoy a break from bleak lives.

Perfect Match

It all starts with searching for a ‘suitable’ marriage partner either on online sites or with Marriage Bureaus. With high registration fees for bureaus, costing rupees one lakh (Rs100,000) or more, you are introduced to one candidate at a time. With few introductions, finding a perfect match takes many months. Online searches mean trial and error as you are on your own to decide and commit. This is a long-drawn trial and error process which is a tough test of patience before the partner is finalised.

Home or Abroad

One of the first decisions for the wedding is its location at home or a banquet hall or abroad. Traditionally, weddings were performed at the homes of the bride by erecting a tent outside the house and employing a cook. Now major hotels and weddings halls cater for hundreds of guests and getting a booking at the top halls or hotels during the season is never easy.

So, some families hold their weddings out of town in India. The guests pay their own fare to reach the destination, and the rest is borne by the hosts. Popular Indian destinations include: Beaches – Goa, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Kerala; Palaces – Jodhpur, Udaipur, Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Hyderabad; Hill Stations – Mussoorie, Rishikesh, Darjeeling Coorg, Ooty, Palampur, Kodikanal. Preference for weddings in India has grown after PM Modi’s campaign for a self-reliant Bharat.

A select number go abroad. Again, the guests pay their airfare, the host pays for all the rest until the wedding. Top locales are: Sri Lanka, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Bali, Dubai, Paris, Greece, Italy (Tuscany), Turkey, Portugal among others

Planning Extravaganza

The Hindu wedding is most elaborate with many events. It takes off with musical evenings when the close relatives of the bride and the groom start off the celebrations at their respective homes. It ranges from professional singers to DJs to bands. Both families engage a professional choreographer to train the relatives in the latest dance numbers and the steps to make the evenings memorable.

Most big weddings are managed by professional wedding planners who provide the complete package after discussing the needs and preferences of the clients.

Meanwhile the couple gets busy shooting photos and videos of their courtship in romantic locales, travelling to hill stations, beaches or tourist destinations. Conservative families send an escort with the would-be bride for overnight stays. Some love birds want to act like their favourite pop star and lip-synch the hit song which involves other dancers as well.

The formal wedding gets underway with the ‘mehndi’ ceremony when the bride and her relatives get beauty treatment with henna designs on her hands and feet. The groom has a similar ‘haldi’ ceremony when turmeric is applied to his face for glowing skin, this ceremony means everyone should wear yellow clothes. In between, the groom has a bachelors’ party with his close friends and these days the bride too has her bachelorette’s party with her dears.

Decking Up

The top two items for weddings are clothing and jewellery. The first stop is not the neighbourhood tailor. No, it a designer these days charging lakhs for one garment. For the bride, the Lengha, an ankle length billowing skirt with elaborate embroidery and decoration for the major ceremony can cost over one million rupees if bought from top designers; and different outfits for different functions makes the total rocket to millions. The groom needs a Sherwani, a knee length overcoat of silver or golden fabric with pants and a turban; and other outfits for other events. Again, clothes for parents and siblings and close relatives mean high spending.

Gold and Bling

The bride and her relatives must have a number of different jewellery sets for major events to match the garments, usually in gold but now diamonds are favoured by the rich and the super-rich. The groom also gets jewellery like necklaces, ear rings and brooches.

With gold prices rocketing and diamonds out of reach, some smart people rent costume jewellery for the ceremonies and the same goes for Lenghas. After all, these items are just needed for one evening and they look real in photos so why not save a good amount.

Endless Spending

The shopping spree goes on with luxury watches, top end mobiles, furniture, electronics et al. After all, the bride needs a new double bed, a dressing table, a TV for the bedroom and so on. If the couple wants to start their new life by themselves, then a flat has to be provided or if they need a new or a second car, it has to be provided. Then gifts for the relatives and close friends must not be overlooked. These are selected and purchased in bulk for cars, gifts and decorations to become memories for the major invitees.

Banqueting Booms

Lavish is an understatement for wedding banquets: Starters are almost unlimited. On stalls for street food, many guests gorge on it so much that they leave before dinner! Then dinner has a number of cuisines, starting with North Indian, South Indian, Chinese, Italian and other delicacies, desserts are equally mouthwatering with Indian sweets, ice creams, western desserts et all.

Click and Shoot

Despite selfies, wedding photography has become a well-paid profession as still shots and videos are a must. These professionals provide the complete package after discussing the needs and preferences of the clients. Starting with courtship shots when the couple travel to scenic locales for classic shots to remind them of their favourite movie scenes or pop stars, some brides rent dance teams to recreate the hit numbers of their favourite icons. Then come the formal events with the main ceremony involving airborne drone shots. The coverage involves more than one cameraman.

Honeymoon Bonding

When all the ceremonies are over, the couple needs to get to know each other better and proceeds on their honeymoon. Not to the old-fashioned Kashmir or Goa, nor the trip to hill station temples but overseas tours to exotic locations, ranging from Caribbean beaches to African safaris, European tour to Brazilian Sambas. And don’t forget Mauritius! After all, a honeymoon is the best start for a marriage. Remember the famous saying, “A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.

Anand Kul Bhushan is a writer, journalist, UN media consultant and workshop/meditation leader.

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 22 November 2024