Why the big fuss over a low-key and rather humble wedding?
MANY spluttered with rage over the Gupta wedding at Sun City last week. If the truth be told, though, the carping was more to do with envy about the elaborate four-day extravaganza than any purported flouting of state regulations.
As we all now know in rather intrusive detail, hundreds of guests were flown out for the wedding from India, and specially selected chefs and choreographers brought along to see to their comfort and pleasure.
The lucky bridal couple, Vega Kumar and Aakash Jahajgarhia, were of course at the centre of the lavish spectacle. Three Indian fashion designers attended to their wedding attire (if you must know, there was a different dress code for each of the six wedding ceremonies).
“In Hindu tradition it’s important that when a girl from the family gets married, you must pull out all the stops, and we most certainly will be doing that,” the bride’s chuffed uncle Atul Gupta explained beforehand.
He rightly avoided giving tacky details about the cost of the wedding, but confirmed that it would run to a few million rand.
Yet, instead of the generosity of Gupta and his brothers, Ajay and Rajesh, being applauded, they were vil- ified for what was maliciously described as a vulgar display of wealth.
Some people are obviously not all that well-informed. Even a quick Google search on the internet will reveal that last week’s affair at Sun City was, by comparison, a fairly humble and rather low-key affair.
Take, for instance, the wedding of Vanisha Mittal and Amit Bhatia in 2005. The bill for that five-day affair in France was estimated at $60 million (those who know these things now put the figure at $66m after adjusting it for inflation).
This included the cost of invitations mailed in silver boxes, plane tickets and rooms at a five-star hotel in Paris. The ostentatious affair itself took place at Versailles, a 16th-century chateau and a temporary wooden castle.
It must also have cost a pretty packet to get a rare talent such as megastar Kylie Minogue there to provide the music. Nor did guests leave afterwards with just precious memories; they were each given a bottle of Mouton Rothschild and designer gift bags reportedly filled with jewels.
Now that’s throwing around some serious money. So why give the Guptas such a hard time? Even a two-bit actor like Liz Hurley and a barely out-of-histeens football player like Wayne Rooney paid more for their nuptials (Hurley’s wedding cost $2.5m in 2007 and Rooney’s $8m in 2008).
But, instead of complimenting the Guptas on their restraint and good taste, we go out of our way to find fault with the wedding. That some or other piece of paper wasn’t correctly filled in to allow their guests to land at Waterkloof Air Force Base was a rather feeble pretext.
No, the vitriol directed at the family has nothing to do with incomplete paperwork or even a backlash against what is mistakenly regarded as an obscene display of conspicuous consumption. Rather, it is motivated by jealousy over the Guptas’ millions and the easy access it gives them to power.
Fortunately, the Guptas are not fazed by all the fuss. Next week they will host another wedding ceremony at Saharanpur, their home town in India. On this occasion, they will unselfishly celebrate the wedding with 5 000 guests.
Surely they deserve some credit for that?