36,000 shaadis and God alone knows how many barbaadis
Reports suggest that 36,000 weddings will take place on a single day in December in Delhi this year. Chew on it.
That means out of a population of 1.1 crore, 72,000 people will get married in Delhi on that day which entails 36,000 X 5 = 180,000 pre-and-post-wedding functions during that week (after all what's a shaadi in Dilli if it does not hasten your downfall towards bankruptcy!) And if an average of only 200 people attend each function (that's a rather small estimate), it will mean that 72 lakh people will be out on Delhi's streets on that day- which pretty much seems like a recipe for utter chaos and confusion. Commercially, even if each wedding costs only Rs 5 lakh, that would mean an expenditure of Rs 18 billion. Mind-boggling.
If you ask me though, the figure seems highly exaggerated and only a great figment of imagination of both journalists as well as that new breed of wedding planners who seem to be invading this city.
Newspapers report such stories with alarming regularity each year in the last week of November or early December. The intro to all such stories is the same, it inevitably starts with, "It's that time of the year again." Once they are through with explaining the wonderful alignment of stars which is the cause behind all those unions, they spin hyperbolic yarns of ghodis doing triple shifts, trotting from one wedding venue to another, of pandits being caught in traffic jams long after the mahurat is over, of the likes of Ambika Pillai making up 500 brides in an hour and other similar tales.
The number of weddings is suitably increased each year, in keeping with the media's penchant for exaggeration. When I started my career in 2003, one fine evening around 5 pm, I was told that the city would witness 14,000 weddings. When I asked some wedding planners, how they had arrived at that figure, they said it was an estimate arrived at by Chawri Bazaar traders since a majority of weddings cards are printed at this Chandni Chowk paper market. The bazaar traders, however, offer no such figures. Next year, someone decided to increase the figure to 17,000. The year later, they came up with two dates, on both of which 15,000-odd weddings were apparently held in the city.
This year, of course, will see the mother of all shubh mahurats with 36,000 weddings. But really, is that even possible? Does the city actually have so many people of marriagable age? And if so many people are getting married on that day, why are all my friends single?
Oh and for the record, I haven't got a single invite to a wedding on this mother-of-all-auspicious days...
That means out of a population of 1.1 crore, 72,000 people will get married in Delhi on that day which entails 36,000 X 5 = 180,000 pre-and-post-wedding functions during that week (after all what's a shaadi in Dilli if it does not hasten your downfall towards bankruptcy!) And if an average of only 200 people attend each function (that's a rather small estimate), it will mean that 72 lakh people will be out on Delhi's streets on that day- which pretty much seems like a recipe for utter chaos and confusion. Commercially, even if each wedding costs only Rs 5 lakh, that would mean an expenditure of Rs 18 billion. Mind-boggling.
If you ask me though, the figure seems highly exaggerated and only a great figment of imagination of both journalists as well as that new breed of wedding planners who seem to be invading this city.
Newspapers report such stories with alarming regularity each year in the last week of November or early December. The intro to all such stories is the same, it inevitably starts with, "It's that time of the year again." Once they are through with explaining the wonderful alignment of stars which is the cause behind all those unions, they spin hyperbolic yarns of ghodis doing triple shifts, trotting from one wedding venue to another, of pandits being caught in traffic jams long after the mahurat is over, of the likes of Ambika Pillai making up 500 brides in an hour and other similar tales.
The number of weddings is suitably increased each year, in keeping with the media's penchant for exaggeration. When I started my career in 2003, one fine evening around 5 pm, I was told that the city would witness 14,000 weddings. When I asked some wedding planners, how they had arrived at that figure, they said it was an estimate arrived at by Chawri Bazaar traders since a majority of weddings cards are printed at this Chandni Chowk paper market. The bazaar traders, however, offer no such figures. Next year, someone decided to increase the figure to 17,000. The year later, they came up with two dates, on both of which 15,000-odd weddings were apparently held in the city.
This year, of course, will see the mother of all shubh mahurats with 36,000 weddings. But really, is that even possible? Does the city actually have so many people of marriagable age? And if so many people are getting married on that day, why are all my friends single?
Oh and for the record, I haven't got a single invite to a wedding on this mother-of-all-auspicious days...
posted by 8 by 52 at 11:10 PM
6 Comments:
And I always keep wondering whether most babies in Delhi are born in August - considering all these suhaag raats happening in December.
well with media's penchant for big headlines....these things are bound to happen.....just wait and watch when DNA hits Delhi...with its penchant to do the same things that times does (in a much better way of course)....so you will more and more of phaff invading your mornings.....
Well, the papers today are full of stories on how Jupiter was in a particularly good position on Sunday, which led to the wonderfully shubh mahurat.
Toe Knee: God. It reminds me of that Children's Day comes nine months after Valentine's Day joke.
Vivek: Well, the journalistic community in Delhi has been waiting for DNA to arrive for almost 18 months now.
Your title reminded me of that serial on Zee Tv like 300 years ago - remember? "Shaddi ya...barbaadi" haha... I think anything anyone says, I will always find a ghati popular culture reference!
hmm ... so i take it you didn't get invited to even one of the 36,000 weddings?? :)
Essar: It did? I don't remember any such serial.
Ninja: No, I didn't. Sad, isn't it? Sigh...
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