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The gold dust settles on the Ambani wedding hullabaloo. A wedding that was beyond a grand spectacle; a glitzy supernova exploding the conscience of people who were first starstruck and then felt cloyed. A WhatsApp joke summed up well- “It is one wedding I’m tired of without attending it.” The internet was filled to the brim with videos of celebrities lined up to please the Maharaja. They danced, jumped, and cheered to make their friend, the groom, happy. Many wore attires that stamped them as part of Anant’s brigade. Money surely cannot make up for lack of imagination. Our political leaders proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is the moolah they serve. Despite much name-calling of the Ambanis, they showed no shame in attending the spectacle with their mega-sized families.
The religious heads—the Dharmagurus—also made it to the Jio Center. They displayed no problem with opulence and materialism. Austerity and asceticism seem to be things of the past. The Dharmagurus blessed the event as they sat on special thrones erected for them, with their props, showing zero hesitation. Sanyasis and sadhus keeping to their caves, math, and ashrams is dated now. Charvaka and his philosophy of materialism seem to rule the roost. Materialism is real and the only reality. It won’t be long before girls start looking for designer lehengas identical to what the Ambani women wore. Chandni Chowk will be flooded with second copies of bridal finery seen in the wedding.
Yes, the money could have been spent in more meaningful ways, as another WhatsApp message suggests—perhaps on schools or hospitals. But then, isn’t it hypocritical of society to expect so much philanthropy from a family simply because they are extraordinarily wealthy? Do we even have a culture of philanthropy? We are still a feudalistic society. We love our weddings and cocktails; we see nothing wrong in blocking roads with our nagin dance performances. Weddings signal our social status. Hindi and other regional literature are replete with stories of exploitative practices associated with weddings and dowry written over the years.
Therefore, when an extravagance like the Ambani wedding is criticized and a moral high ground is taken, it smacks of hypocrisy. It seems that this stirring of moral fiber in people is out of a special hate that the poor reserve in their hearts for the rich. As they bow before them, look at their videos awestruck, they just feel a sense of injustice and stinging envy at generational astronomical wealth. The spectacle of the Ambani wedding, with its overwhelming display of opulence, reflects not just the ambitions of one family but also the broader cultural and societal norms that prize grand celebrations. It’s easy to criticize such extravagance, but perhaps the anger it stirs is less about the event itself and more about the disparities it highlights in a deeply divided society.
In the end, the Ambani wedding serves as a mirror reflecting our societal values and contradictions. It shows us a world where wealth can command almost anything, including the presence of ascetic spiritual leaders and top political figures, all under one lavish roof. This grand celebration, while critiqued by many, remains a testament to the enduring allure of materialism and the cultural importance of weddings in India. As much as we might like to believe in the higher moral ground, the reality is that our society still bows to the grandeur of wealth and status. The outrage, therefore, may be more about our own unfulfilled aspirations and the stark contrasts that such events so glaringly exposed.
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