Indian Marriages

The incredibly rich and Bollywood-besotted families of Indians, whether at home or abroad, seem to be in permanent competition to outdo each other in celebrating weddings. 
Weddings in India can sometimes be the eastern equivalents of Donald Trump—overdone, overexposed, ostentatious, and very, very rich. Depending on the community, Indian weddings can last from a couple of hours, including lunch, to a full five days' affair with elephants, fireworks, and more traditions than anyone can care to count. For the families it is the event that sets their social status within the local populous and sometimes, more often becoming regular, in public media.
How does middle class India react to all this? A small number of urban Indian wannabe families are envious and absolutely stunned. They try to copy the rich families and create their own events at more affordable costs. The poorest father will mortgage his house and drown himself in debt to ensure that his daughter is married with more than the best possible; the richest will drown his guests in Black Label and black money.
Apart from the social pressure, there is a huge amount of waste in terms of various resources. Keeping the financial aspect aloof from this discussion for now because people argue in favour of it by says it gives a boom to the economy (consumption spending increases), food is wasted in huge amounts in every wedding. In 2007 there were 36,000 weddings on one day in Delhi alone. Imagine how much food would have been wasted cumulatively. It takes a toll when, on the other side, beggars eat from trashcans and have animals for company. This, in a country where the father of the nation chose to wear only a loin cloth, because so many people couldn't cover themselves properly is something that is given inadequate consideration and thought.

(Written in 2007)