Big Fat Indian Weddings May Become a Thing of The Past
Famous for their pomp and extravagance, lavish weddings are commonplace in certain areas of India especially since a new wave of affluence has opened the door for celebrations fit for royalty. Many gala affairs involve multi-cuisine buffets, hundreds, maybe thousands of guests, and sometimes even elephants parading in full regalia to help luxuriate the joyous, costly and highly indulgent occasion.
Currently, the Indian government is considering making these lavish affairs a thing of the past and limiting the number of guests permitted at any one celebration. This is meant to conserve food and prevent waste.
“We are looking into the possibility of reintroducing the executive guest control order created in the early 1960s… Today the issue is not scarcity, but food is still being wasted, and a maximum amount of food is wasted at weddings,” said a New Delhi official at the Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs who preferred to remain anonymous.
Many feel this unpopular move is a deflection from governmental responsibility for failing to address serious issues such as food price inflation.
The governmental argument is that nearly 15% of all grains and vegetables in India are wasted at social events such as weddings. The emphasis on preserving grains for India’s poor and needy is a point that needs to be addressed.
India is a nation where the rich and poor are sharply divided and a place where being poor carries a terrible stigma and the certainty of an early death via starvation and disease.
Is the government right to intervene in the private affairs of the wealthy or should it continue to turn a deaf ear and blind eye to the prevalence of poverty that so defines many cities in India today?
Is the answer blowing in the wind as Bob Dylan used to say or is it here already?
It would seem to depend on who is asked the question, no?
By MDeeDubroff on 02-03-2011
