Like
all girls, I have always dreamed about my wedding day. I’ve played my favourite
Bollywood track on repeat, imagining my friends and family dancing around me
while I become the centre of their universe for just a few hours. It would be
my day and of course my hone vaala’s
day. But it would belong to me a little more than it would belong to him. But
now it seems I have to share my day with a hundred people with hundred
different opinions. I will have to do things I don’t really believe in and
listen to a pundit that I don’t really agree with. When did weddings become so
impersonal?
Yes, Indian weddings and traditions date back
to thousands of years but during those thousand years, someone somewhere decided
to turn a wedding into a tamasha. The
very reason for a wedding has been diluted by over the top customs, social
obligations and eye-watering bling. I know so many people that want to elope to
a small island and get married with no one around except seagulls and crashing
waves. But unfortunately tradition and obligations bind them to the big fat
Indian wedding.
I
respect and even like tradition as long as it’s in small doses. But I don’t
really want it following me as I take my 7 pheras.
I want to dance around the mandap wearing flip-flops and a neon colored lhenga
with a hipflask hanging loosely around my waist. But nope, I will have to be a demure angelic virginal
bride as I walk around the fire and smile coyly while eyes judge me. I will be
a victim and I can’t fight it because even though it’s my day I have to make everyone
else happy. Funny isn’t it?
But what
I’d hate even more than painful earrings splitting my earlobes into two is the
guest-list syndrome that I have witnessed many, many times in the past. So you
had a shot with someone once and indulged in drunken conversation and that
person is already picking out sarees and designer ties for your wedding. Even colleagues
expect to be invited just because you ate lunch with them one odd day in a
crowded cafeteria. And so does so-and so aunty who is so-and-so’s aunty who
once smiled at you with pan stained teeth. If they don’t get a card, they think
it’s an insult. Seriously? An insult? I know someone who returned someone’s ladoos because they didn’t get a card
for the wedding day. Just eat the ladoos, man! It’s not about you! It’s about
two people celebrating their undying love for each other. It’s about two
families becoming one. It’ s about over-the-top laughter and smiling so hard
your cheeks hurt. It’s not about egos, demands, people pleasing. It’s only about
love, happiness and positive vibrations. So no, you and your paan stained teeth will not smile for
photographs during my wedding.
