REVIEWING THE WEDDING ECONOMY OF NAGALAND

                                                                                 

Marriages are made in heaven that is what the saying goes, but the ceremonious bills are to be paid on earth that is what the professionals say. Every couple or most of the couple want their wedding to be a memorable affair; most genuine reason may be because no one expects to marry a second time, although hardly anyone knows what the future holds. This feeling of once in a lifetime occasion plays a major role in deciding how big and fat the wedding should be. In Nagaland, all around the year, weddings are held but the timeline of November to March is considered as wedding season. A friend of mine in a disgusted tone complained, “What I hate about this season is the traffic jam.” Yes, it is true, especially if the venue is in some residential area where there is no proper parking space.

The course of wedding planning which starts with the engagement party, the exchange of rings, followed by refreshment or a lunch or a dinner, adds up to the expenses in a sneaky way. As the wedding date is set; correspondence is done through the wedding card, and wedding card is of various patterns, designs and inks, even the cheapest of wedding card will not be free of cost, and when ordered in bulk comes around some few thousand rupees. Who is the bride and who is the groom, where is the venue, when is the date? Please refer the wedding card, yes, it is a necessity, but it could be very pompous if the wedding card has musical recordings in it, right?  What did the bride wear? Obviously, a wedding dress; the bride could like to wear something not ordinary. If they want to make it big, then they might settle for some international labels, but if they settle for the dress bought from the local boutique it also works fine, however, cost of the wedding dresses has shot up with years, in my personal experience, some sixteen years ago one of my relatives got her wedding dress switched for ten grants, recently my friend who did aim for a low budget wedding got her dress designed for twenty-five grants; which was believed to be the cheapest in the boutique’s catalogue, indeed the entire trousseau is quite expensive. As for the grooms, whatever may be the colour, suits are the most preferred wear for the occasion; sometimes what comes more expensive than the suits are the formal shoes. What makes a wedding successful is the proper coordination of the beauticians, photographers, stage decorators, the catering service, and the return gifts for the guest who will be bringing the wedding gift; in fact these are channels which swallow a big portion of wedding expenditures.

Wedding ceremonies have been an indicator of wealth, the distinction between have and have-nots can be easily made out through the lavish expenditures. With regard to the guest; they tend to be more conscious of what to wear when they get the notion of what the budget incurred would be. The concept of ‘low budget wedding and high budget wedding’ has been a clear indicator of the class divide that is emerging in Naga society. What is fascinating is the rapid commercialisation of the occasion. The heavyweights in the society have shown their wealth through the wedding gifts  presented to the couples, ranging from a designer jewelry set to imported cars to buying lands or even constructing architect designed houses to financing the honeymoons abroad. With respect, the money that is pumped in the weddings is often parent’s money, and the irony is one who is unemployed ends up celebrating the grandest of wedding compared to his peers who are working with a decent income. Once I had a conversation with an elderly gentleman, he was all happy with the splendor wedding of his son, quite bluntly I inquired whether he will ever regret spending the huge amount if the marriage does not work, he said, “I will not regret; I spend because I could and I should.” Maybe at the end of the day, the wedding expense depends on what wedding means to different people, maybe the perception matters, maybe the definition of ‘successful wedding’ matters. Indeed, it could be nice if we ponder over it.  

One of my good friends who is into wedding planning gave the opinion that to subdue the wedding expenditure it could be better if there is a set target of how much should be spend, and could be wise if the two families consider seriously where they could like to spend most of the budget; whether in photography, food, decorations or trousseau. The Dimapur Ao Church Arogo has come up with an appreciable work of organising mass weddings, where refreshments and decorations are sponsored by the Church, the concept of it found acceptable for it helps the families who are not financially rich. By the way, I am yet to attend a wedding where it is written in the back of the wedding card that the monetary gift received will be given to a charity; well it could be great if some couples come up with this idea, after all, marriage is a union of two hearts where people love to share their happiness with others; so what harm it would be if they give it in monetary form to the people who needs it the most. 

THE DAY THE THEORY SURVIVED

All these were making me pukish; looking at the expensive high ceiling built by people who knew that they will never be invited to attend such meetings of class order, hearing the speaker flaunting his American accent shifting to British accent after 30 minutes of his lecture, and finally settling for the accent best suited for his mother tongue. I walked out from the hall, had a flight to catch, the fresh air was a thing of past, the taxi driver was an easy talker. He made me think that we humans are such strange little creatures; we know so much yet know nothing. We are capable of loving, creating, destroying and recreating what we want and which at the end of the day means nothing to us.

I took the window seat, the steward was a brown hot man; he was the desi version of Ryan Gosling. I checked him out as I was totally aware that a feminist need not is a misandrist. The feeling was mutual; I do not know whether to call it equality at play, or liberty at display or justice done. I looked at the clear blue sky from the plane’s window, too bad; I could not throw the chewing gum from there. I smiled, indeed, an ‘idea’ is the only thing which will always sell in the market; it never gets exhausted, it comes to everyone but in that moment of one true delight, we find a bulb glowing over your head. Some perverts concentrate on the shape of the bulb which is in the shape of a very firm bosom/ butt/ball and they lost their way; but, if our mind in not fix to that then the idea comes to us just like the milk from a leaking kettle. 

That way, I missed the two theorists I had grown to love the most, one died of syphilis and the other died of HIV/AIDS, both had an amazing libido. You know what they spoke to me, “ Imagination and the frequency in which thoughts travels has often astonished the most brilliant of minds, there have been theories build on the assumptions and debates surroundings the captivity with which an object attains its freedom to choose on an invert stream of thought. Projecting something as the way it is for the brave to write it down and to distract contains from what has been considered as the original; in fact, it has been the work of a person with high skill in manipulation. Summing up of the ground on which the revolt for the decipher of words have been formulated and shackled by the borrowing of the fundamentals and the writings of the centuries wherein the muscles of the escalation has been embraced. However, mountains, streams and lakes forming grand scenery of the intellectual pride and the canon driven either by bravery or the soul understanding of other’s knowledge could be of an added advantage. Affirmation and twinkling of a progressive measure could be outsourced through the progressive and coherence of a willing rebellious pillar founded in the non-confronted mind.”

I reached my home @ 11:18 pm, as I type these lines in my laptop, my horny dog is crying out loud in the corridor, too bad he is such an unwanted Romeo. However, my intention is not to introduce you to my dog, by the way, his name is Tommy but he does not respond to any name other than Jackson.

                                         

NAGA HONOURED WITH BHARAT JOYTI AWARD

SPECIAL FEATURE

I Chubatangit Jamir receiving the award from (left to right) Major Ved Prakash, member AICC, Dr. Bhishma Narain Singh, Former Governor of Tamil Nadu & Assam, General (Retd) J. J. Singh, Former Chief of the Army Staff Former Governor of Arunachal Pradesh. (Photo Courtesy: Limasutsung Lemtur)

I. Chubatangit Jamir was honoured with Bharat Joyti Award, 2013 for his meritorious service and achievements in the field of Right to Information.

India International Friendship Society confers this award on few extraordinary men and women who have specialised in various fields like science and technology, education, industry, fine arts, politics and social work, in lieu of the yeoman service rendered excellence in their respective fields. The Society has thoroughly considered Chubatangit’s work and found it to be remarkable and inspirational, stated a press release issued by Ayangti Longkumer.

Chubatangit is a social activist and has been involved with RTI issues since 2006. Apart from other noteworthy works, he was the Investigator under Planning Commission, India for Nagaland Chapter (2012) on the study of Central Department Funds in the North East Region and its utilization, Gauhati High Court Petitionaer against Nagaland Education Department under SSA Scheme (Fund mismanagement) and Supreme Court Petitioner (PIL) against Nagaland Government for illegal appointment of Parliamentary Secretary by DAN and several other important issues through RTI Act.

At present, he is actively involved in issues involving RTI Act, 2005 and Consumer Act in the State of Nagaland against corruption. His mission is to serve the nation and its people by bringing about a change in the present system through a check in the level of corruption.

The past recipient of Bharat Joyti award includes Mother Teresa, former Vice President BD Jatti, cricketers like Sunil Gavaskar and Sayed Kirmani, and Olympic silver medalist in hockey Dhanraj Pillay, gold medalist shooter Abhinav Bindra among several others.