If marriages are made in heaven, the angels must have been busy for weeks. Wednesday night was wedding night for 30 000 couples in Delhi after Hindu astrologers declared December 13 the last auspicious day to ”circle the fire” for a month.
India’s capital has been a riot of music, food and decorations since Sunday. The issue of which hand-painted invitation to accept even made for light-hearted debate in the Indian Parliament on Wednesday. Delhi’s top elected politician, Sheila Dikshit, had 11 weddings to choose from this week.
But the rush to get hitched at this time of year is not universally appreciated. Software companies have complained that staff attempt to take their holidays all in one go, leaving projects unmanned.
And small marriage halls across the country have banned music and large gatherings after complaints from local residents. Mohammed Shamin, president of the Nizamuddin West residents association, said the local hall would no longer accept bookings for receptions with loudspeakers. ”They are all educated people but they come here and get drunk and play music until 4am. No one can sleep.”
Urban middle-class weddings have become lavish affairs — part of a trend of conspicuous consumption — and generally cost at least $45 000. Fewer than 200 people means the affair is an ”intimate gathering”. An industry has sprung up around the weddings, with companies organising exotic venues such as beachhouses in Goa or desert forts, flying in designer gifts and ensuring guest lists include the rich and powerful, even if the families do not know them.
”We are selling a concept,” said Rakesh Harjai, director of Indian Wedding Planner. ”In the Himalayas we arrange weddings for a snow theme. We arrange transport, book hotels, arrange food and parties. You want luxury coaches? We have had them made.”
The industry is a study in changing Indian values. While the groom is supposed to enter the ceremony on a horse, more elaborate weddings use elephants and camels. Some have gone further: last month a wedding in Punjab saw the groom touch down to the temple in a helicopter. ”Basically it is a show-off mindset. People are competitive about spending money and there is a one-upmanship in the middle classes. If your son comes in a Rolls-Royce, I will have a helicopter,” said Ajay Vir Singh, managing director of Dhillon Aviation, which supplied the helicopter. — Â