Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant wedding

All this talk of the largesse of the family and their feeding of the poor is like throwing a few scraps from their overloaded table.

Bit of a dilemma here, visually the clothing warn by many of the guests was beautiful, but the self-indulgence and the ostentatious display of wealth I found distasteful. I can’t imagine how they thought this display was ok! Each to their own - as it obviously was!

petra

The grooms father is the biggest buyer of Russian oil.

www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-29/western-security-doubts-grow-amid-india-russia-oil-trade/103033716

His oil refinery in the western town of Jamnagar is the largest in the world.
^In 2021, it acquired the historic country club Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire for £57m.
A bulk of what Indians consume today, from the shows they watch, to the clothes they wear and potentially even how they will transact in the future, comes from the Ambani stable

annsixty

I can totally appreciate the charitable position the family take and applaud it
What I can’t understand is the guests at the ceremonies.
Why do the Blairs the Johnsons and the Kardashians attend, are they personal friends of the families?
It all seems so weird to me.

As I said earlier, they were paid to be there.

The grooms father is the biggest buyer of Russian oil.

www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-29/western-security-doubts-grow-amid-india-russia-oil-trade/103033716

I can totally appreciate the charitable position the family take and applaud it
What I can’t understand is the guests at the ceremonies.
Why do the Blairs the Johnsons and the Kardashians attend, are they personal friends of the families?
It all seems so weird to me.

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

They do give to the poor in India. The grooms mother, Nita Ambani (joined in matrimony to Mukesh in an arrangement by his father) celebrated her 60th birthday by hosting a dinner with 3,000 children in Mumbai. She is a philanthropist as well as a business woman: www.ril.com/about/corporate-social-responsibility/rf-founder-chairperson

Posters acknowledge that Aveline. The point being made repeatedly is the level of wealth at the disposal of these people.

The Ambanis did help the local poor people. It's all in a previous post.

old dog, I agree it’s shocking that a family would sell the antibiotics provided for their child. It’s shocking that they probably needed the money for food.
They may of course have been neglectful, like parents I saw in the uk, selling items sourced and donated for their baby

olddog

Gillycats

I think it was obscene. The poverty in that country is terrible. My son worked in India for 5 months. Every evening he and colleagues ate at restaurants near to their hotel. They all bought 10 extra meals to be given to the street children (who were made to sit and eat it at the restaurant by the owners). Nobody on earth can justify spending that amount of money on a wedding while children are starving to death. Shame on them.

Agree. A friend ( Indian) told me she saw a child with a hideous skin problem and was moved to source antibiotics. They went back to see how he was doing and the family had sold the medication.
Dreadful.

I agree with both of you. The street children in Mumbai scavenge on the huge rubbish tips for items like cardboard to sell for a few rupees so they can buy rice. To see this obscene amount of wealth spent on a wedding and having to pay 'celebrities' to attend turns my stomach. Boris Johnson looked ridiculous in his Asian get up. Did he not feel any shred of embarrassment in parading around like that for money? Probably not. The newlyweds could have helped their local poor so much and not even feel the pinch but they turn their backs.

Gillycats

I think it was obscene. The poverty in that country is terrible. My son worked in India for 5 months. Every evening he and colleagues ate at restaurants near to their hotel. They all bought 10 extra meals to be given to the street children (who were made to sit and eat it at the restaurant by the owners). Nobody on earth can justify spending that amount of money on a wedding while children are starving to death. Shame on them.

Agree. A friend ( Indian) told me she saw a child with a hideous skin problem and was moved to source antibiotics. They went back to see how he was doing and the family had sold the medication.
Dreadful.

Just looked at the wealthy Indian wedding photos.

Carrie looks stunning. Boris looks pretty awful but then he is a big, cumbersome guy and can’t imagine him looking good in very much.

Then I looked at the Groom who is also a big, cumbersome man but that long jacket favours him and cleverly covers any lumps and bumps unlike Boris’ outfit. I imagine the Groom had the best tailor in the world run up that outfit for him because it fits him perfectly.

How awful. Poor girl.

The Indian weddings I went to did last for several days but they were just working class people. They have lots of relatives who all help out financially and there is one part of the wedding celebrations where everyone comes and pin money on the bride.

I am going back years but they used to have a registry office wedding and also Hindu wedding which was the main one. Guess it’s still the same.
I worked with several Asian girls and they taught me how to do henna tattoos on their hands.
The food at these weddings was wonderful. Often the bride had never met her husband until the wedding, which is why some of them look in a state of shock.

One of the girls was about 19 and she was being forced to marry a widower old enough to be her grandad. All she knew about him was what she could see in a photo. She cried and cried for weeks hoping her family would give in but they didn’t and she did marry him. I often wonder about her because when people use the word “heartbroken” that was exactly what she was. Never saw anybody cry like she did, poor girl.

You have now Oldbat1 - much like the rest of us.

Who? Never heard of them.

JaneJudge

Big Asian weddings are big money ££ even on a 'normal' scale
I was a little surprised at all the non Indian guests wearing traditional Indian clothing. I have an Indian neighbour, I think they'd be horrified if i started wearing a sari, we were always taught cultural appropriation was wrong
I think this may be a cat amongst the pigeons comment but I'm genuinely interested in how others may view it

My nephew had two weddings, and at the Indian one everyone wore Indian attire. Mind you, it was nothing like the Ambani/ Merchant one! Their main reception was after the civil ceremony the next day.

Yes. They are really beautiful people.

Casdon

She was a lovely bride. I’m sure India must have the highest percentage in the world of beautiful women.

they really must.

Our former neighbours were from Mumbai and her family had servants. She had to get used to doing her own housework etc when she came over here after marrying.

my neighbours are from Mumbai and they said you can live very comfortably on the outskirts of Mumbai for under £500 (uk) a month, including housing - so yes, it is vulgar if you make comparisons (I only have their word for it also so I'm happy to be corrected if I am wrong)

We give aid to India, a country which would rather spend money on a space programme rather than feed those of its people who are starving and whose dead bodies lie by the roadside - and some of whose people are fabulously rich and spend obscene sums on themselves.

I think it was obscene. The poverty in that country is terrible. My son worked in India for 5 months. Every evening he and colleagues ate at restaurants near to their hotel. They all bought 10 extra meals to be given to the street children (who were made to sit and eat it at the restaurant by the owners). Nobody on earth can justify spending that amount of money on a wedding while children are starving to death. Shame on them.