Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant wedding

RVKICR As I understand it, you are saying that you would be happy to stand and watch people starve because somewhere there was someone in that country who could afford to pay for food, even though they choose not to.

In every country in the world, including the poorest and most deprived there will a few people who will be very rich. That means that we should not give any state aid to enable the poor to get out of their poverty.

Come to that, it would apply to this country as well, none of us should give money to Food Banks, charities that help the homeless or in any other way help the poor in this country because we have rich people who can afford to pay for it.

How would you make them? Especially if they lived in other countries.

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

Agree with you about the clothes, even Boris joined in but still looked scruffy! When I read about this wedding my first thought was why is the Uk sending millions (maybe billions?) in Aid to India when these families have SO MUCH spare cash? Overseas Aid should be only sent where there is nobody in that country to help.

The poverty deprivation substance misuse and mental health problems in Blackpool are extensive. Their A and E department reflects that. It’s desperately sad to see the downfall of one of our best holiday resorts.

But house prices are not evenly distributed across the country. Expensive houses (not necessarily large opulent houses) tend to cluster in different areas.

if you live in London, there are most houses sell for over £1 million, even 2 up 2 downers. Go to Blackpool and an identical house will cost £20,000 (I checked that on Rightmove.)

In my area of Oxfordhire the average house price is way over the national average and there are a lot of houses worth a million or more.

(Grin)

And how does Google know that?

Just had a quick google and found that 2.5 % of the population have houses worth more than a million £s.
The vast majority do not.

I know absolutely nothing about this wedding or the families involved other than the comments on this thread.

I am of the opinion that if anyone has earned (or even inherited) their money legally, paid their taxes etc., then they are free to spend it as they wish as long as it is legal and doesn’t harm anyone else.

Producing spare cash by selling up was discussed up thread.

silverlining48

“Many of us have houses over a million”? Wow! Many? Really?

I rather think not, but if one were so fortunate then moving somewhere smaller and cheaper would produce some spare cash.

But why should we move somewhere smaller and cheaper? probably away from friends, families and social life?

It is generally known that one of the biggest destroyers of the physical and mental health of older people is loneliness.

I live about 14 miles from central London on the outer London borders in a detached house in an ordinary town and was questioning your statement that ‘Many of us live in houses worth over a million’. I would say it’s the few not the many.
Last time I heard the average cost of a house in the uk was about £300k.

Celebrities

Maybe we should all just sell everything and give the money away to 'the poor'. Then wed be the poor!
There are many reasons for houses to be worth a million. Prices have crept up. Suddenly houses that cost very little when bought years ago are worth much more. Alternatively, people study, then work hard, save money, don't spend it on expensive holidays etc and prioritise buying a good house. Others may have set up businesses employing others and may make sufficient money by their efforts to have expensive houses.
The Ambanis have almost unimaginable wealth but they have created jobs for thousands and shared their wedding celebrations with those less fortunate than themselves. It's a bit tacky paying for celebrations to attend but it's their choice.

I don’t mind paying tax to make life better ‘for the poor’
This city of sanctuary has ver few houses worth one million. We have some excellent charities that ‘help the poot’

I don’t know where you live, but that’s pretty normal in many areas. And if you had such a house, why would you want to move somewhere cheaper just to free up some cash to give to the poor?

“Many of us have houses over a million”? Wow! Many? Really?

I rather think not, but if one were so fortunate then moving somewhere smaller and cheaper would produce some spare cash.

Many of us have houses worth more than £1m. If we were to sell them what ‘spare cash’ would that produce?

Most countries have families like this with more money than sense. Although, in the UK, most are tax exiles (think Richard Branson and (Sir Philip Green).

All these rich people and many less rich could go round handing out free food. remember the Duke of Westminster's wedding a month or so ago. He paid for several ice cream parlours to hand out free ice cream all day.

Remember that much of this 'obscene wealth' is not money in the bank but companies that make things, do things, employ people.

I suspect that poverty in this country could be resolved if all those people with houses worth more than £1 million sold them and gave the spare cash to the poor.

Totally agree with petra and keeping quiet : it is an utterly gross display of wealth and makes me angry and despairing. If I had been the Blairs the invitation would have been turned down. I hope those celebrities who were paid to attend donate the money to a good cause…or am I being ridiculously naive to think that would occur to them?

When I was working in a school in the city centre, we had a number of pupils from other ethnicities, including many from the Bangladeshi community. When it was Eid we had an Eid party and the lovely Bangladeshi mums dressed the staff, if they wanted to, in beautiful saris. I was dressed a number of years and loved wearing those saris.I had a photo taken one year but I can’t show it as it wasn’t digital and I’m unsure where it is. I loved those parties, and our Bangladeshi community really appreciated us doing that. I also had mehndi patterns on my hands which I loved. So I don’t think most communities have any truck with that. Those lovely ladies wouldn’t have dressed us if they thought it offensive. They seemed to enjoy including us.

petra

Macadia

A new word for me: Bhandara. I just learned about all of the free meals given to the surrounding community for days: timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/non-stop-bhandara-at-antilia-continues-large-hearted-anant-ambani-ensures-a-celebration-for-all/articleshow/111761125.cms

I like that tradition !

How gracious of them.
With a fraction of their wealth they could feed and house every homeless and hungry person in India.
The grooms father is worth 221 billion dollars
Just in case some don’t understand how big one billion is this will explain.
One million seconds is 11 days.
One * billion* seconds is 31 years
The father has 221 billion
Obscene 😡

This. To me it all smacks of showing off. A cultural thing no doubt. Goes against the grain of my culture. Can I say that?

It seems to be all about if you can spend more money and score more slebs than the last people did. Obscene. Spend half the money and build a few schools and hospitals instead.
To be fair, do I need another cashmere cardigan? Not really but I buy it anyway when I could have donated what it cost to charity.
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i don't know much about the wedding but when I worked (about 15 years ago) , I mentioned that I thought £7000 was a lot to spend on a wedding . Both Asian colleagues said it was common and in actual fact was below what would have been expected. Both came from a normal working class background so in real terms this wedding seems about on par

There is wealthy and then there is wealthy. For me personally, I see displays of wealth like this as cold and empty. Inviting people you barely know to your wedding for publicity to me is like the ultimate in emptiness. Mumbai is a filthy super poor city in India, how do you with a clear conscious have a wedding like this in the face of some of the worst poverty in the world? And what's worse is when our society views this as wonderful.