Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant wedding

Thank you Macadia for posting - I had thought about to post about it.

This is the second huge wedding in India. These families have the money, they've earned it and it's their business how they spend it. Estimates are as high as $600million overall for this latest wedding. Some posters have pointed out that they are philanthropists. But these weddings (and the Indian space programme) make me question why we send foreign aid to India - calculated at £2.3bn between 2016 and 2021 - and still there is abject poverty in parts of India.

We were at a lovely hotel in Khao Lak in Thailand in 2019 where an Indian wedding took place. The dress of all the relatives and guests were amazing. They were quite happy for the hotel’s other guests to observe the proceedings. The hotel had a series of mini canals within the grounds and the bride arrived by gondola and onto the beach surrounded by dry ice.

That is the last long haul holiday we had as I don’t think I could handle a 12 hour flight any longer.

Never heard of them.

You can hire elephants in Leicester???

Yeah, great to have such a lavish occasion, it maybe helps the economy of Mumbai in the short term, but then you see the wee ones living in absolute poverty and families struggling on hand outs unable to lift themselves out of this, and it is just wrong, it highlights what's wrong with the widening gap between rich and poor globally (there is a big difference between those "able to get by" in contrast to "living in poverty"). Also, this is by the by, but I can't think what she sees in him...

Traditinally Indian weddings whether Hindu or Muslim are huge. The celebrations should rightly be seen as part of the bride's dowry and the huge number of guests reflect well on the financial status and generosity of the bride's parents.

I am always suprised that people comment upon this, as somewhere between 200 and 300 guests were common in the West of Scotland, even amongst Lowlands Scots when I was a child. A Highland wedding would be much bigger.

Lists were kept of who had given the young couple a present and what it was, so that they and their parents could reciprocate suitably when somone from the giver's family married.

Now that family feeling is not the big thing it was then, you see brides and bridegrooms aplenty spending an amount on their wedding that would have been a suitable down payment on a house.

If there really any difference between doing this and celebrating a traditional Indian wedding?

I frequently wear saris myself and have seen many men and boys with no Scottish relatives at all wear kilts, or play the bag-pipes. To me this is a nice compliment to a culture, not "cultural appropriation" whatever was meant by that term, but I gathered it was used disapprovingly.

I find it hard to believe the amount of money everybody seems to spend on weddings these days, it seems to be more about 'the day' than actually the fact of being married, but this is just on another scale altogether. Apparently it has been going on for 4 months!! I think I'd be bored stiff by the end of it all.

Does it really matter? I gather they gave free food to local people which wouldn't have happened otherwise.
Yes, most of us might think the money cd have been spent on helping more people but not our money so not our choice.

This was Boris Johnson’s outfit.

Well can’t imagine the Blair’s or Johnson’s going to a shindig like this if there wasn’t financial benefit for them!
I’m just aghast at the obscene amount spent on this wedding when the UK is still expected to donate to this so called ‘poor’ country!?
They should be ashamed of themselves, whatever traditions are! Purely obscene! Whatever next?

Obcene show of wealth, given the poverty elsewhere in the world

They can do what they like with their money, of course, and no doubt they sleep very soundly at night. But it’s the exceptions to the rule that give me faith in humanity.

Warren Buffett for example, who has pledged to give away 99% of his wealth, who still lives in the relatively modest family home he bought back in the 1950s, and whose second marriage took place at his daughter’s home. He gave his three children enough money to set up their own non-profit organisations so they could make their own way in the world.

This over the top affair just illustrates how tone deaf the super rich are to the poverty all around them. It has always been the case. Years ago the super rich were the Royal and Imperial houses and their suffering people gawped at the spectacles they enacted whilst so many lived in abject poverty themselves. In time, they were overthrown or simply bowed out. Today it is big business which gives rise to the new and equally self interested elites. The difference is, the world is watching through the lens of universal media. It makes me despair that human nature continues to be so self serving and shallow and that the hoi polloi are still enthralled by their obscene displays of wealth in a suffering world.

I probably sound awful, but I have no idea who these people are!

Ktsmum

The outfits were custom made for all of the guests apparently🙄

But not Justin Bieber's (although it could be languishing in a baggage depot somewhere in transit).

The outfits were custom made for all of the guests apparently🙄

I'm not sure if this couple's attire could be criticised as 'cultural appropration' or applauded as the correct attire for an Indian wedding.

I think they look smart, the dress is lovely, and hey are appropriately dressed.

It clearly is in the public domains and open to comment.

This poor soul didn't get the invitation with the dress code.
Or else his luggage went astray.

If cultural appropriation is wrong, why do the vast majority of people in non western European. North American countries all wear clothes derived from western clothes - for men - trousers, shirts, suits, ties etc, for women the trousers, dresses etc etc that we wear?

Come to that why are so many restaurants ethnic, and willing to sell their cuisine to anyone whether it is French, Italian, Spanish to Mongolian, Mexican or African?

I am currently wearing a cotton dress, a culturally appropriated fabric.

As far as this wedding goes yes, obscenely OTT to those from other cultures but the norm for wealthy Hindus in their own country. I agree with GSM

Urmstongran Would you consider yourself a mug for donating to a Food Bank in the UK, even though we have lots of multi=millionaires and billionaires in this country. The analogy is exact. These huge divergencies of wealth between the very poor and very rich can be found in almost every country in the world, including our own. it doesn't mean we do nto help those who suffer most at the low income end.

Well I must live a very sheltered life and this thread has been quite enlightening. I've never heard of this family, nor anything about the wedding. But as I've now read all the thread I feel I'm up to speed with it all.

maddyone

Macadia

Yes, if someone gave two coins to the poor and it was all of the money they had to their name, they would have given more than the tens of thousands of rupees given by the Ambani family.

Your post reminds of the parable of The Widow’s Mite in the Bible.

It is.

Macadia

Yes, if someone gave two coins to the poor and it was all of the money they had to their name, they would have given more than the tens of thousands of rupees given by the Ambani family.

Your post reminds of the parable of The Widow’s Mite in the Bible.

Macadia

And their lovely daughter, Isha, founded www.hercircle.in/

Her mother launched that, I think.

Fine with those with access to the internet, not so helpful for those living in the slums or on the streets.

Yes, if someone gave two coins to the poor and it was all of the money they had to their name, they would have given more than the tens of thousands of rupees given by the Ambani family.