True, marriages in India are not personal affairs. These belong to the society, and so people have to be involved. But does it mean you have to invite the whole town to display your wealth? Why not put it to a good cause or invest it in a more appropriate manner. An effort is often made by the people who can afford to do so, to create a `feel' of heaven on the near-by humble grounds and wake people living nearby all night. What is often overlooked in these celebrations is that a fine wedding does not necessarily result in a happy marriage.

I, for one, fail to empathise with the people who consider blowing-off money as something `mandatory' for a marriage. Marriage, after all, means beginning a new life, sharing the ups and downs with your partner. What it has got to with money? But in the times when Gandhian principle of `simple living, high thinking' is a passe and `showing-off' has become the in-thing, who wants to be left behind in the mad, mad race of outdoing each-other, in just about every thing. It appears as if these high and mighty people are seriously engaged in the pursuit of proving to the world that `India is not a poor country'. Who cares, then, if fellow-citizens in some other parts, Bundelkhand being the latest one, are committing suicides because the pangs of hunger become too much for them to bear? But why go so far? In Chandigarh also,many children go to sleep with their stomachs unfulfilled,when the tables in a not-so-far-off beautifully decorated tent are full of food of all types- vegetarian, non-vegetarian, Indian,Chinese etc.

Heavily decked-up people in expensive, fashionable clothes consume some of this but still a lot gets wasted. To me, it is not only a wastage, it is a `criminal wastage'.Many a people may dub this as cynicism, saying it is not their duty to feed the hungry millions, and they have full right to celebrate their joys. Celebrate, if you must, but please don't overdo it. Because such extravagant marriages not only increase the feelings of frustration among the have-nots, but in fact, `marriage' in true sense of the word, is overshadowed by the `celebrations'. And if these things don't bother you then think of the environmental pollution caused by dumping of left-overs.