Doll up, Dais, Dine and Drive back.  These are the 4 Ds of a wedding these days.

Getting dressed up to match the decorum is a pain in itself, especially if it is after a hectic  long formal day, to dress up reluctantly and reach the grand venue of the wedding is another ordeal, then to wait in the long undulating queue of guests, up to the decked up dais,  only to be able to exchange a few ostentatious words and greetings with the newlywed and, their parents, is yet the next enduring obstacle, once done, a sigh of relief and then the last crucial step to make headway for the serpentine line for the dinner plates and then the struggle to acquire some palatable vagaries into the plates in hand is the last feat before the next one! Hunting for familiar faces is a regimen no longer arousing enthusiasm but never the less it just goes on callously while something curiously goes inside the mouth at the wedding reception.  The familiar faces come and go, some might smile, the others drowned in narcissism refuse to recognize you, a few ignore the presence and just a miniscule manage to brighten up at your sight. 

Without going into the nitty gritty of why you are obscure, or why you are treated this way, it is easier to conclude it succinctly as a way of life on such occasions these days.

But when the first 3 steps of any wedding have been accomplished, now to push, pull and nudge ahead in a humongous crowd to say a courtesy adieu is important too.  Not that it is possible in all the receptions as the patience has waned on sides by now, theirs and ours.  So, the next thing to do is to walk past the gracious watchman or purser who again, treats you with graciousness only after seeing the model of your car, the wedding ritual is just beginning to end.  Get into your austere car, and drive back with a speed juxtaposed with the tepid experience of the wedding … the third, fourth or fifth one in the fortnight.

It is often a cumbersome job to honor the invitations even if you don’t mean to be harsh or when you are not a human hater.  The super trooper weddings make it more of an exercise, a test of nerves than a happy occasion to be a part of.  Superimposition of vanity over celebration of nuptial bonds is exposed.

No offence meant!

I wish simplicity and human bonds could be enlivened in these events to make them more memorable for their emotional value than the wealth show in the venue, decorations, and all else of lesser significance than the essence of long term commitments and alliances made memorable through this event.

The 4 Ds of a wedding reception could always be given a sensitive thought of transformation into 4 Ds of Dignity, Desire, Destiny and Design of matrimony for the two young people on the threshold of life together and the sharing of their togetherness witnessed by all those they considered their near, dear, friends, family and acquaintance on the very same grounds.