The Great Fat Indian Wedding

What according to you is India's national passion? What's the thing that completely surrounds an Indian's life - Cricket, Cinema? No! It is 'MARRIAGE'. 

From the day a baby is born, be it a boy or a girl, the plans for a grand wedding commence. Parents start gathering money not for good education of their children but for a Great Fat Indian Wedding. Marriage an event of great cultural and social importance is now a mere a cycle of feasts and exchange of gifts in one’s own family as well as between bride’s and the groom’s family. Dowry, lots of food wastage, and oodles of showoff are some key features of Indian Wedding these days. Traditional customs witness a more modern form which is more or less a mere formality. 

The week long extravaganza, or rather 'marriages' involve lot of ceremonies and a hell lot of money. Lavish meals, Flowers, Lighting, Dresses, Jewellery- every detail thing makes marriage more of a marketplace in India. The growing stature of showoff in marriages has made it increasingly difficult for the middleclass to conduct this social gathering. Enormous amount of food is wasted in marriages. This only adds to my pain, because a lot of people die due to starvation the same night; but hey, who cares?

Audi, BMW, Mercedes are the key spotlights, which make marriages more of a business deal. More the number of brands involved in a marriage, more it will be talked about in the society. For the people getting married, it is union of the two souls and celebration of the moment. But for the others it is an occasion to dress-up , show off your jewellery, family get-together, feasting (dieting is a sin during marriages), and what not! For kids, it is an occasion to meet lots of other kids and play around when the elders are busy with the customs/rituals. For the event management companies, the mandap owners, the flower seller, even the pujari and the likes, it is a grand business opportunity. 

Bridal wear and Bridal jewellery collection is another story altogether. At times bride’s parents may end up spending all their life's savings trying to repay the loan taken for their darling daughter’s marriage. That is, obviously, when they can afford to get one. Else their daughters might end up being single, or worse, agree to anybody who is ready to marry them. On a long term this also leads to other social evils like 'female foeticide or infanticide' in rural areas. 

Moreover, the thing which bothers me to a great deal is the decreasing importance of the marital relationship. Divorce cases have risen significantly, and who else but the society is to be blamed for that. Beautiful and expensive jewellery can't really define the longevity of the relation, and hence, more emphasis should be laid on finding the right match based on character, not in terms of money.

I believed as people become more educated and progressive, they will begin to see the absurdity of spending somebody’s lifetime savings for a single dress and occasion. On the contrary, educated people prefer this all the more! The few weddings of wealthy Indians (who get all the media attention) seem to have masked the inability of the other lesser mortals to hold such spectacular weddings. Well, I just hope better sense prevails and the big fat Indian Wedding doesn’t actually become a hindrance for others. 

Marriage always must be the union of two souls who make a lifetime commitment, rather than a huge crowd applauding the great arrangements by the hosts.

I would end here, hoping that the next time I visit a marriage, the bride and groom will appeal more to me more than the mandap.

Pulkit Garg

Y15 Undergraduate, The LNMIIT

PS: Selected as Winning Entry- October '15.

Talvar- Movie Review

India's most controversial case unearthed bit by bit. 

The general public, somewhat uninformed, jumping to conclusions seeing baked stories playing 24x7 on the idiot box, can finally see exactly what happened. Although there was a disclaimer active, saying it is inspired (and not based), but any person having even slightest of information about the Arushi Talvar and Hemraj double murder case can join the broken pieces and can see the direct link. 

Hats off to Meghna Gulzar and Vishal Bharadwaj for honestly sticking to the plot and not adding any 'mirch and masala' to the script. This movie grips you from the very first frame and holds on to the last. If you are one of the 'Singh is Bling' types, then I deeply apologize, as this might not be the film for you. But if you long for actual cinematic experience, if your heart literally abuses this mainstream 100 crore Bollywood shit, then this movie will light a candle in your heart amidst the darkness which looms over Indian Cinema. Vishal Bharadwaj's tight screenplay holds your grey and instills a question after every scene," What will happen next?" This movie is a poster example of perfect casting, where each supporting actor played their roles with sheer honesty. This is what makes a film a successful one.

Coming onto the music, well, what to say. Words can't define the soulful music Vishal makes. His music defines and explains the depth of the story and every low and high note is in synchronization with the gravity of the scenes. Justice wouldn't prevail if I forget to mention Arooj Aftab's 'Insaaf ', a song which still looms in your heart long after hitting your ears. At last, finally, special mention to the king of acting, one of the few gems we have in bollywood- Irrfan Khan. The way he pulls off his role of an investigating officer is just marvelous. It was truly a treat to the eyes to watch Irrfan enacting that role.

To sum it up, Vishal again scores high on his screenplay and music, Irrfan by his raw acting and finally the director, Meghna by her flawless direction.

A must watch!

Ishant Rajpurohit

Y14 Undergraduate, The LNMIIT

IS CORRUPTION ONLY BECAUSE OF POLITICIANS?

“My mother is in hospital and I really have  to go, this call is very urgent & this is the first time I am picking up the mobile while driving". These are the excuses which we use most of the times when caught by traffic police and after that and handing over some bribe, we are released. I want to ask, in these situations, where is the politician plating his role? Is only us who want to save time and get rid of our responsibilities as a citizen .

Not only this, what about our selfish motives and desires. Everybody wants to be an IAS officer, get admission into medical and engineering colleges. There is a never ending list of all evil things which happen in the stream of education, a very well known one is “paper leaking”. I want to ask whether our MLAs, MPs, CMs want to get admission into medical & engineering colleges. WE take the 'first step' and then politicians come into picture.

WAKE UP GUYS.WE are human resources. And do remember that INDIA is still a developing country, not yet developed. It is our responsibility to make it a developed country. Our freedom fighters fought against the Britishers. WE must continue their legacy and fight against the evil 'corruption' so that everyone enjoys the real freedom.

Sitting on the couch, with remote control in one hand, we simply comment on the politicians and their doings. Have WE ever asked ourselves that what are we doing for the country? Everybody is just waiting for a superhero to come and finish all this mess.

ROME WAS NOT BUILT IN A DAY. Just first look into yourself, then your family members, your relatives, your friends. Are they doing everything correct and legal in their life? Correct yourself. I am sure you will find many people around you who are corrupt. First speak to them, correct them. If you can’t make a change on your level then you have no right to say anything related to CORRUPTION.

Shriya Rai
Y14 Undergraduate, The LNMIIT

Mystery Unresolved

I had never known the concept of life would be so hard to endeavor and conquer stuffs through your way and capture the righteousness with less effort. However I did have an ultimate faith in a so called bluff by atheists; the ruler, the actual admirer and creator of all the life forms prevailing in a way so hard to envision and digest. But then the queries put up are well welcomed for their unbelievable gesture offered. If the ruler exists then an equal mole mixture of miseries and bliss should be poured out, why such a partiality is performed? I must have just mentioned that, I hold my views against the atheists but sometimes they create a pool of doubt within me, which often makes me question for my exotic soul. The spirit which stands within me yet not with me, the spirit which lets out screeching cries when I’m hurt and sighs a joyful smile when I’m glad. May be it is an alien, a person within each one of us who has abducted our thoughts and drained off all the consciousness at times. Definitely this soul determines what kind of reality is hidden among us and never unleashes out this mystery by answering the doubtful questions. Even if it does, that doesn't happen with all of the living creatures and to be more specific to say, the humanity existing on this planet. Not everyone feels that inner voice, not everyone hears the emotions of a soul. Then there mockingly arises a weird question of who this alien is and why has it stamped its foot within us? In response to that, it is pretty simple that we view the sights as our brain pictures it out for us, so this formation of images occurs according to the satisfaction of that alien who is prevailing within and enchanting the beauty of this world through us. However we need to mark a strict control on it and commence interpreting the stuffs in manner which optimists the quality of thoughts and not pessimists the same !!

But has this thought been pondered as to who is the “I” here? Who is this damn person whose thoughts are so confusing and ruffle that he/she is just trying to grab the others without any cause. That I is, none but each of ours minds. This little weighing organ in our system has been bestowed which such a capability to not only conflict our own ideas but may be even support the same.

May be its just another plan to create a thirst for something new, an inquisitiveness to discover the mystery and an enthusiasm to play with a stuff.

Srishti Bhardwaj
Y14 Undergraduate, The LNMIIT

Is the presence of the United States in the Middle East justified?

An American drone struck North Waziristan located on the Pak-Afghan border at dawn break. Somewhere in the killing fields of the Levant, an Iraqi suicide bomber blew himself up, killing fourteen. And that too before breakfast. Is it a bloodbath today? No, just another Sunday morning.

That is exactly how things are at this moment. These occurrences have become so common that we regard such incidents with a very vocal expression that is a cacophonic medley of abhorrence, disdain and anger. But then let us examine such incidences a bit more closely. Let us ask ourselves a question that is long overdue. Where did it all begin?

Now the Middle East has always been a hotbed of political turbulence. Trying to oversimplify this enormous labyrinth of political ideologies would be tantamount to insulting the intelligence of countless men who have gone before me. Men, whose eminence, charisma and power I cannot even hope to match in this life or the next. All I can do is offer my humble, and very normative (due to the nature of this piece) opinion on this issue.

I see this conflict as a sea which is calm with the pallor of death. And along sails this huge oil tanker, causing ripples in the water. Because this is one word that it all comes down to -oil. The oil must come through, and lives must be traded for it. The only thing I blame Europe for as far as this aspect of the war is concerned is,let’s see, developing the internal combustion engine in the first place. 

Now, I do recognize that all the belligerents in the present war are to blame, and some of the powers opposed to the United States even more so. But as a liberal, I feel that the NATO, as a responsible power has a responsibility to quit acting with such petulant childish anger at every small occurrence in the world. The world has already seen the inefficacy of such devices as sanctions that NATO employs. We have seen how the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions plan against Israel, however uncalled for, backfired. No amount of sanctions could deter Russia from invading Ukraine or Crimea. On the other side of the fence, the American war efforts in Vietnam and Afghanistan proved to be debacles that that cannot be repaired ever even by a generous application of the political antihistamine that is apologetics.

It is time for NATO to come out of its false supremacist ideologue that the world is Eurocentric, and that it must be involved in every little incident that goes on round the globe. They have to come to terms with the fact that they cannot do much if North Korea or Iran develops nuclear weapons. Or the Taliban starts massacring innocents in Afghanistan. They must allow ‘nature’, for lack of a better word, to take its course and carry out timely purges against such elements in the form of civil war.

Events in the contemporary world have conclusively proved that any interference may tip the balance of a war in the short run. But if you stay involved in the long run, or 'camp', such wars end up to be much more disastrous than they would have otherwise been. I can give you detailed analyses of such wars, but as I mentioned, this piece is intended to be normative in nature, and more importantly, short.

The bottom line is that the NATO must now realize that every country must go through certain stages of political significance, before it blossoms into a peace-loving and responsible world power. Sometimes this is attained in a matter of years, while sometimes it takes decades, even centuries to come about. Interference if it is at all required, must, therefore be limited to a point till which it is conducive to the political maturing of the country AS WELL AS popular aspiration. It must evaluate the opportunity cost of military expenditure over economic growth at every stage of the war, and should care more about the popular aspirations of the countries they have a presence in.

Vibhor Kashmira
Y13 Undergraduate, The LNMIIT