The Covid-19 pandemic once altered Kashmir’s world view about the big fat weddings. However with the time, Kashmiris are once again tying the knot still doesn’t mean dull celebrations. Kashmiris hosted massive weddings in pandemic where banquets were made for thousands of men, the decoration gave the houses the look of palaces and women wore gaudy, expensive attire. The trend of big fat weddings was picked up by other regions in south Asia and regrettably Kashmir proved to be no exception. Weddings in Kashmir have gone through a sea change. People across the social spectrum spend a great deal on weddings. But unfortunately in many weddings nowadays, people forget to maintain protocols. It’s not a complete celebration. Once (certain) things are scaled down, you have to scale down everything. Even there is a common observation that a Kashmiri earns all his life to meet two ends-Marriages of children and home. Money is saved for years and years just to put up a grand show on the day of weddings. Things have come to such a pass when a prospective marriage gets broken down because the girl’s family did not buy bakery from a renowned bakery outlet. Every brand, every makeup artist, every cook and every singer is sacrosanct in Kashmiri marriages.
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Weddings in recent years have become a ‘nuisance’, which are at the heart of creating social tensions, between different sections of the society, apart from being a major source of wasted food, throughout the UT. Kashmiri weddings are prolonged and lavish celebrations where tonnes of meat and rice is consumed which allegedly causes sharp rises in local food prices during the fall. And the unfortunate thing is that big fat weddings are considered to be an important measure of one’s social status. However, since the pandemic, lavish weddings were largely avoided, but as the cases started ebbing, the trend of the big fat wedding has started picking up again. Why cannot all this be done so simply? Above all, every religion teaches simplicity to be a virtue. If we observe around us, there are so many poor people or educated men with no job to do. There are definitely many thousands of women alone in Srinagar, who cannot afford to marry. Why cannot all this money be diverted to these noble causes? People are imitating each other in innovations as if it is some kind of a great virtue. Government can do us a favor by checking how much tax these people actually pay who can spend so much on the wedding of their children. Is it all white money?
