Why Indians Need To End Their Obsession With Big Fat Weddings

With a huge variety of delicacies to tickle the taste buds, music that fills the air and the baratis in their glittering finery, to look their best, Indian weddings are extravagant affair. A series of functions and rituals precede and follow the wedding ceremony, the preparations for which start months ahead. Inviting people, shopping, booking a venue, deciding the menu, planning the entire wedding week, a wedding in India is nothing short of a grand event. Not only is it tiring for the bride and groom, but the families go through all kinds of pressures too. Marriages, unfortunately, have become a status symbol and have thus lost the sanctity of actually being a celebration of a relationship. And this lust for grand weddings costs us more than a big bill.

Here are some reasons why we need to bid adieu to the big fat Indian weddings.

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Financial Burden

Middle-class parents start saving for their kids' wedding years before it actually happens. The arrangements require lakhs of rupees as the standard of the 'dream wedding' is going up with each passing day. This burden is even more humungous on parents with daughters. It's rare for the two families to split the expenditure for weddings in India even today, which is very unfair. And it isn't just the venue or the jewelry that burns a hole in their pockets. They have to fork out money for a delectable unending spread of feast, for every ceremony, designer clothes, decorations, DJ, and exquisite return gifts as well.

Middle-class parents start saving for their kids' wedding years before it actually happens. The arrangements require lakhs of rupees as the standard of the 'dream wedding' is going up with each passing day.

Panic

With the pressure of hosting a good event looming over the heads of the parents, they go through immense panic during the preparations. So much is to be planned and done that instead of having fun, everything becomes an irksome task. The couple too, apart from having to go through the natural nervousness of starting a new life, are tired of getting constantly captured in the heavy wedding outfits, and the pressure to look their best. A happy occasion transforms into a task and loses all the charm.

A Private Affair

A wedding is the commemoration of commitment, of a union between two people and thus their families. But weddings are also a social obligation, which means that families have to entertain a large party of people; acquaintances, distant relatives, neighbors, casual friends etc, and thus this celebration of commitment is no longer intimate. It becomes more about appeasing people, some of whom think it is their duty to critique every little detail at a wedding. The more the number of people at a wedding, the harder it becomes to meet their demands and standards, and thus the focus shifts from celebrations, as especially parents spend most of their time feeling stressed and cornered.

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Time Consuming

Running errands, visiting bazaars often in the scorching heat, choosing venues are tasks that need to be completed beforehand and take up a lot of time. As enjoyable as the wedding week may seem, the efforts needed in putting up the entire event is both exhaustive and time-consuming. Hours are spent finalizing upon everything and getting approval from the elders of the house. Every other work comes to a standstill because it is more important to maintain an image in society and keep the guests contended.

The more the number of people at a wedding, the harder it becomes to meet their demands and standards, and thus the focus shifts from celebrations, as especially parents spend most of their time feeling stressed and cornered.

Effect on environment

In an era of high awareness around climate change and ecological preservation, it comes across as indulgent to have lavish weddings. The amount of plastic waste generated with disposable cutlery, the excessive food that is then disposed off to the bin, and all the water and electricity consumed, is it fair to burden our already exhausted planet =, just for our obsession?

Keeping all these factors in mind, one feels like it is time to ditch the lavish and elaborate wedding events that we have gotten so accustomed to. After all, if it is about celebrating a union and commitment, then shouldn't the focus be on love and not lavishness?

Picture Credit: Gravity Gate

Saavriti is an intern with SheThePeople.TV. The views expressed are of the author's own.