By D N Singh
It made interesting reading in a newspaper ‘Wedding PIL’ and the crux of the issue is that the petitioner drew the attention of the court to the hideous ostentation in marriages and other such functions. While hailing the sincerity of purpose of the petitioner, it shocks that how long are we going to live in pretensions and hypocrisy !
The PIL by the activist Itishree Rout, in the Orissa High Court seeking the direction of the court to curb extravaganza, is commendable but the issue should not be lost in the piles of pendency or even a direction from the honourable court should not remain in calendar only.
While talking of austerity in the spending whom do we mean to be austere? We have become a society living in double standard and a community that believes in copy-cat philosophy. It is a society that cries loud that there is a majority out there who can barely manage a single meal a day. And we are the same that become cheer-leaders to the hideous show offs of a wedding ring bought at few lakhs of rupees or which celeb hosted the party where and the list of the menu crossing hundred items or more.
We have a brigade of insensible lot who derive pleasure by posts in social media highlighting the pageants. Rituals and celebrations apart but Indians have become the victims to the craze of show-casing the lavish display of wealth through the marriages.
Rarely or never, any of this lot drift during the morning walks to witness how much food gets dumped at the river-beds or inside the garbage bins. This breed is never interested to see how the poor kids scan through the garbage bins or elsewhere to get something to eat.
But the same people who are inured to the ills of extravaganza are the ones who make a lot of noise in seminars and meetings about economic development and parity. We need to think that India hosts one of the largest starving population in the world.
It was about two and half decades back that the then chief minister of Odisha, Biju Patnaik, had tried to enforce a guideline to seal the expenditure not exceeding Rs.25 thousand per marriage. That never happened and the rules restricting such extravaganzas were thrown in the back-burner like the excess food.
Food thrown in bins or at river-beds or elsewhere are not because the food becomes stale but more than required. Imagine a society where a larger population is not able to manage a square meal a day and now think of a society which scrambles for a pit to dump the excess food.
What is ironic that it is not only the rich but even the middle-class Indian family has fallen victim to such hideous ostentation and self-back-patting syndrome. They may mortgage or sale a property but will not allow the society or guests without a lip-smacking feast.
