Prodigal Ambani shaadi

Free Thinker *

National news and global media have been covering the most pompous and glamorous wedding of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant. They are writing or reporting, broadcasting or telecasting about the events relating to this marriage for the last 5-6 months. The estimated (conjectured) cost of the Shaadi is about 4000 to 5000 crores. This is an unprecedented expenditure in the history of human nuptials.

One young lady on a social media platform says if Ambanis can spend four thousand crores on a wedding ceremony that is unimaginable for a lay person. For a laity even a crore is a huge amount .

Bharat has a population of about 1.25 crores . She has given an extraordinary suggestion saying that Ambanis could have gifted a crore rupees to each citizen on this happy occasion ; the whole population would have blessed the new couple.

The wedding could have been conducted easily with just 2975 crores. Moreover the entire nation shall remain grateful forever to the Ambanis for their benevolent gesture ; and it could have also contributed in making Bharat a five trillion economy. I love such out-of-box thinking.

One mobile-phone company girl was talking to a gentleman in Kanpur. She was just suggesting the gentleman to shift from Jio to Vi. The gentleman was responding - they are a family of four and all are using Jio.

The caller was trying to convince the gentleman saying that Jio has hiked its service charges and as a result Vi has become cheaper comparatively. But the gentleman from Kanpur was adamant and said that they cannot do it now because Ambanis are having a tough time financially - because of Anant’s wedding.

In this difficult time if they withdraw from Jio Nita Bhavi will be annoyed. The girl on the other end said, it will make any difference to them. Still the gentleman from Kanpur did not yield saying that this is beyond our culture to leave someone in lurch when they are having a difficult time.

The wedding ceremonies were adorned by almost all the great stars of Hollywood and Bollywood , World’s well known billionaires, CEOs of Multinational Companies, great leaders and useless politicians were present . Modi ji and Lalu ji were also there . But Rahul ji was not visible ; we can’t confirm whether he was invited or not.

It was a pleasant surprise to see Mohan ji and he blessed the new couple – perhaps with a 'sagan' of 1001 rupees . The RSS people are really cultural hubris. Once they are invited they will try to come for the ceremony. Even an adversary’s invitation is respected. If attendance is not possible the gift or the best wishes sandesh shall be conveyed.

There are rumors regarding the gifts the Ambanis got from the billionaire invitees, particularly for the bridegroom. These are all hearsay - not verifiable. Mark gave a private jet costing 300 crores; Bill had given a yacht costing 180 crores ; Sundar gifted a helicopter priced 100 crores; Adani gifted a villa in Dubai costing 50 crores; Evanka had presented a House in the US costing 80 crores; Birla had given a vanity van costing around 25 crores. These are all gossips – floated in the social media. But the Ambanis did not deny anything about these.

It was reported widely in the media that all the reliance employees under Mukesh and Nita received a gift packet which includes sweets and a silver coin. Commences were made in social media - saying that a gold coin should have been given instead of a silver coin. Ambanis are spending hundreds of crores on alien singers and dancers. A few hundred cores could have been spent on their loyal employees.

One Jha (a senior journalist) who is critical about this show of strength and wealth in public said with a satire that in this wedding (events) which lasted for about 5 months the Ambanis had exhibited all their diamonds and precious jewelry collected over the years . Do you know Nita’s diamond collection exceeds Shah Jahan’s total minus Kohinoor?

These days it becomes a status symbol to blurt that the Ambanis have invited me and my family to their son’s Shaadi . Their son Anant is getting married to a Merchant. They are all merchants after all.

Some great personalities were not invited. Few Chief Ministers were missing including Maan Saab. Northeast CMs and Governors were not invited because Ambanis have very little business in this region . Perhaps they don’t believe either in ‘look east’ or ‘act east’, rather they are happy with the western corridors of Gujarat & Maharashtra .

Forget about film stars, politicians, industrialists, sportspersons and many government big guns were present in the ceremonies. Few did not turn up because they wanted to avoid the scornful eyes of their political bosses who were also attending the same. Even heavy weight lawyers both ‘civil’ and ‘criminal’ were also present including those who are experts in ‘divorce’.

Many people ask, what exactly does Nita-Mukesh want to tell the world by organizing such a big-bang bonanza wedding? The meaning is hidden!