Indian Marriage - Shaadi, The Wedding that costs a fortune

 Yesterday, while travelling in a tram on the way to pick my son from school, I saw a lovely girl in a puple - pink gown. She was glowing and had a rose boquet in her hand. Within fraction of a second, she is a bride and her groom stands next to her. Why it took a moment for me to realise was, there were no crowd around them. Only three or four people were walking at their back, in nice suits and men wearing suit is very common in Switzerland. So, I didn't realise that it is a marriage group.

This incident kindled my memory to think about Indian marriages which is called as Shaadi or Shadi in Hindi, where the size of the crowd who attends the marriage determines the status and prestige of the bride and groom families. The more the people, the more the status. The marriage ceremonies differ from state to state, community to community, caste to caste. There are no two communities or states where the ceremonies followed are alike. For some, the marriage happens in the girls location, where as for some it should be conducted in the place of the groom.

Indian marriages are too colourful, full of silk sarees, designer sarees, glittering jewels, flowers, fun and jokes. Brahmin marriages are so popular for they conduct marriage for 3 days to 7 days, with every day having some different types of ceremonies. But one thing commonly found in all marriages is, the loads of Gold jewels given as gift (also mentioned as dowry) to the bride by her parents. The first question from everyone who attends the marriage would be "How much jewels did the girl brings?"

Hall Decoration

The hall decoration is also considered of equal importance in Indian marriages. Some people used to bring all types of flowers from all over the world to decorate the marriage hall. This costs in million sometimes. Some people will decorate with artificial flowers to reduce the budget.

 Another main thing in Indina marriages are photography and videography, which will cost at least a few thousands. Marriage albums, the physically carried, heavy size ones are so important in the life of the couples, even though the digital photos and picasa albums are popular.

The next important item of Indian marriages is, the Feast. All the people who attended the marriage should be given a grand feast. Feast also will be given for more than day in some places, where as at least a minimum two time feast is given by most of the communities. The feast differs from vegetarian food items to non vegetarian food items, depending upon their customs and culture. Biriyani is one famous food served in the Muslium marriages, where as Payasam is a sweet desert served in Tamil marriages. Ada Prathaman of Kerala marriages are so popular, that people will count on the number of varities of payasam served in the marriage and determines the status and wealth of the family.

The sad thing about Indian marriage is, it needs lots of money and time to conduct a marriage. Right from hall booking to jewels making, both the bride and groom family has to put their efforts. Especially the girl's family need to arrange for money to buy bulk jewels, which would make them brankcrupted sometimes, if they are not wealthy enough. But thanks to the development happening in few parts of India, people are accepting love marriages, which is helping to reduce this burden to an extent.