Marriage is big business. Especially in our culture. It doesn't matter what the cost - the show must be there.A close friend of mine is a senior manager with a clothing company closely associated with marriages in India. When getting married, people almost inevitably seek out this company's suiting for the groom (hint, its main brand name as my father's Christian name). My friend tells me that despite the world wide recession their company has sold more than ever (the Indian economy is doing relatively well). Weddings in our cultures demand that. "We had a dhum-dham wedding" (Wedding with all the bells and whistles - who cares how long I will have to work to pay back the loans I am taking).
The only cloud on my friend's company's horizon is that apparently next year has a shortage of astrologically auspicious days. Hence competition for the wedding halls, bands etc. will hot up, and less weddings means less cloth sold for his company.
In the shadows of the gaiety associated with the wedding feast and celebrations, are so many who are living on the edge. Young boys like the one carrying the lamp in the picture - at night - so that the wedding party can dance on the street. They will get some money for their hard work, while watching people burst fire-crackers many times worth more than whatever remuneration the lamp-holders get.
Life is very, very sad for so many.
Thanks andi for the thought provoking posts...stories and perspectives from bottom up. Our society is increasingly becoming unequal and even as Christians, we choose not to listen and turn away from those below, living in poverty, right in our neighborhoods.
ReplyDeleteour churches do not know how to connect 'what it means to be a christian' and spending on dhumdham weddings ending in debt.The lamp-holders are invisible people.
Thanks Sao,
ReplyDeleteIts hard to know how to speak truth in a loving way when the pressures to conform are so huge. I have always been appalled by the 'Mumbai Christian wedding' with its confetti and spray cans of fake snow... But at the same time, our Lord chose to grace a wedding and help out by performing the first recorded public miracle of his when the water was turned into wine. I would have expected a sermon from him (if I were his manager) about wastefulness and frivolousness - but then there Jesus goes and turns massive stone jars into choicest wine...