Sanctity

Recently, I got a chance to observe a wedding at close quarters after a long time. It had always been a good experience but this time I got to analyse it from many angles.

 

Apart from the usual richness, grandness, opulence, etc. of a wedding, what struck me was the free flow of emotions. And then some….

 

I never understood the whole point of this event where you cry your whole life to celebrate it and celebrate it to end up crying. That’s the sorry state of affairs in a country like India where people consider their daughters a burden till the day they are married off and work all their lives to make her reach this prestigious pedestal. Only to cry their eyes out the day that happens citing their love for the aforementioned ‘burden’.

 

Call it my search for sanctity of the emotions or the rituals, but  I couldn’t really appreciate either. When one second the bride is sobbing and being kissed on the forehead by some aunt and the next she’s asking the same aunt to bring something to darken her henna color or adjust her bangles! When one second the bride’s parents are looking at her from a distance with teary eyes and the next have broken into a jig with full blown smiles!

 

How then do you expect it to be treated? As a celebration? A union of two souls and families? Or as a parting? A family being split apart by a ritual?

 

And what then is the real point here? What exactly is being protrayed?

 

Which is the real emotion to be trusted? Sobbing with the aunt or ordering her around?

 

Haldi (Turmeric) – considered to be auspicious among Hindus. Used as a cleanser/body pack.

© 2013 Ankita Kala