Sunday, April 29, 2007

Wedding of the century

The media hype over the Abhishek-Aishwarya Rai wedding left me cold. The amounts spent and the people who showed up- or didn't- are of little interest to me. But I did wince at the mumbo-jumbo of superstition and ritual to which the Bachchans gave currency. I mean, all that stuff about getting rid of 'mangal dosh', the endless darshans at temples and the rest. I am happy to find myself in august company. Outlook magazine has done a splendid job of getting reactions from a cross-section of writers, film-makers and intellectuals. The comments are scathing. Here is a sample:

Kiran Nagarkar, Writer
"What do we make of his grand donations to temples? That he is covering his front and back, but God doesn't give any insurances."

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Poet
"When they fall ill, why don't they just go to an ojha? Why do they go to a doctor?"

Rajendra Yadav, Writer
"They are busy collecting certificates from the various gods and goddesses. It shows a deep insecurity within."

Reporter Smriti Koppikar writes:

Noted writer Sunil Gangopadhyay says: "Amitabh Bachchan seemed to behave like an uneducated and illiterate person, the repository of outdated superstitions and dark beliefs, which doesn't behove him at all." Add to that Jaya Bachchan's comment that Ash would make a "good bahu" because she is "silent and stands behind". If it has been a long journey for Amitabh, it has also been a rather curious one for Ash, from independent career woman to demure bahurani.


Such a pleasure to see somebody call a spade a bloody shovel.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fair enough. But what everyone seems to be forgetting is that the wedding was a private family affair, not a product meant for public consumption like a film

As much as we disagree with his superstitions and donations, we really have no right to decide how one mr bacchan conducts his family rituals, after all he didn't come to our family weddings and tell us how to run our business, did he?

Guhan

Krishnan said...

As I have always believed, no one has a monopoly on stupidity. Yes, there are many in the US who may think of themselves as superior when it comes to faith/God/whatever, but their actions indicate how fundamentally flawed they are in their thinking. Sam Harris has written a short book titled "Letter to a Christian Nation". I am waiting for the ones that talk to God regularly to do something about him or whatever. Now that Jerry Falwell is dead, someone else may take up that fight.