Splurge season

The whole of last week I did not attend any film, cultural or literary functions. Not that I was sitting home, it was, in fact, weddings and weddings almost all week. Now-a-days weddings are quite like a statement of status symbol with many families throwing in lavish dinners five to seven times in order to ensure that the wedding is talked about in the social circles.

The splurging of wealth during weddings seems to be increasing each year. Though I do not attended 90 per cent of the wedding invitations, even then, the 10 per cent that I do, kept me busy every evening of the week.

For past two years, lavish weddings cards are in vogue. The latest add ons to the wedding cards are Bateel Dates, Swiss or Belgian chocolates and world’s best imported dry fruits etc. This season I got quite a few very attractive, novel and expensive invitation cards. One of the cards came along with a pot of fresh white roses, another one was tied up with pearls while one invitation card had an artist’s original painting on it.

The day before yesterday, I spoke to Gulzar Sahab over phone. He’ll be in Kolkata on the evening of 12th next month. He mentioned to me that he’d be going to the Jaipur Literary Festival. I too am flying to the pink city on Monday, a city that has emerged as a hot marriage destination during the past decade having hosted some of the most lavish weddings.

ess bee