Thursday, July 18, 2013

Celebrating life


It was wedding season last month in my family. We had a cousin's wedding, another cousin's engagement, a distant relative's wedding and my brother-in-law's wedding. After 5 years of married life, I was enjoying the marriage preparations once again, in fact, with lesser tension and more involvement this time.

Weddings have always been an exciting event for me right from my childhood. Reason one, I liked dressing up for social gatherings and reason two, I liked watching people and talking to them. This time, I was glad I could indulge myself entirely in both these tasks.

Here I go dressed up neatly for a wedding...


Introspecting further on the big Indian weddings, I realized it is not the union of two hearts or even two families alone as suggested by Chetan Bhagat in his book '2 states', but the union of many more souls. Marriages mend strained relationships, bring together broken families and serve as the source of new bondings. Relatives relate to each other, friends get together, children play with each other and couples relish on their wedding memories. Despite the huge expenses and a few bitter experiences with the all-time-complainers, the hosts feel contended after a wedding ceremony.

When people comment on the big fat weddings as wastes of resources, we need to stop and think for a while. How often do we sit together and talk as families about a common purpose? How many times have we taken our relatives to a restaurant and treated them wholeheartedly? When was the last time we had seen our cousins who once were closer than our parents and siblings? What have we gifted to our uncles and aunts without whose support our parents could not have brought us up to this extent? Our metro lives teach us to spend time and money with friends, even save some for charitable purposes. Sadly, we have forgotten our own people in home towns who need our support in some way.

Now I have made up my mind to witness wedding ceremonies and wish not just the couple a blissful beginning, but the entire lot over there, a lovely restart of their remarkable journeys!