Extravagance in marriages
Marriages are important happenings in most of the households in Kashmir especially since the past few years as people have resorted to spend heavily on such occasions.
Normally any marriage function conducted in Kashmir costs lakhs of rupees on an average and the cost excludes the jewellery of the bridal wear that has nowadays crossed all limits of spending.
Since lot of social values and customs are associated with marriages, a lot of new trends and features keep adding on to it which in the long run have proven to make it more detrimental rather than any blessings.
These days marriage ceremonies are being conducted mostly in rented places like huge houses and marriage halls. Though lot of these marriage halls have been constructed by various civic bodies so the cost of hiring these halls does not prove to be a burden to the families.
However, the private marriage halls or hotels cost a fortune and the people here pay this amount with open heart. This spending on such non-productive things leads to our marriage ceremonies getting even more expensive and the trend is increasing with every passing day.
What is more horrifying is the fact that many families have started to hire professional singers over these functions and their involvement means a cost of hundreds of thousands or Rupees which again seems to be a mere waste of money.
Though tis trend was not in vogue uptil recently but over the past two years the trend has become so fashionable that many a functions are rescheduled to acquire the best singing talents over marriage ceremonies.
This unwanted addition to our marriage ceremonies has become so awkward that the real social values of our marriage ceremonies is losing its charm and mer4e show off and display of wealth has become the real norm.
What surprised me some days back was when a fried enquired from me that is it customary for the bridegrooms family to provide the ‘Walima’ dress of the bride and that too the choice offered by the bride itself.
Though this seemed quite unfamiliar to me but in the end the bride managed to order a dress that cost a whooping amount to the bridegrooms family and this custom is now gaining more and more popularity among the masses.
These aberrations in our social intercourse may be rather new and in fashion nowadays but tis does not suit our cultural ethos and the value system the people here believed in. The new trends that are being adopted in our marriage ceremonies are nothing but mere show-off and display of arrogance which in the long run will consume us more economically and leave us wandering in wilderness.
Kashmir is right now experiencing a concept of late marriages because many average households fail to achieve and fulfil these new customs and as a result many young women are not able to get married off at their right age.
The phenomenon needs to be changed and we all have to act to rid the system of the ills it is adopting.
KV Network
