December 28, 2025 06:40 AM IST First published on: Dec 28, 2025 at 06:40 AM ISTTwo mammoth weddings in Delhi recently upped the ever-expanding universe of glittering consumption to further absurdity. Instagram was overrun with reels of how one host hired a stadium for a concert by pop star Arijit Singh, while at the other, guests swayed in their finery to an electric performance by AP Dhillon. Conservative estimates suggest both weddings easily cost upwards of Rs 150 crores each, to be sure, small change for these industrialist families. Who knows, maybe what keeps the super wealthy committed to the splashy extravaganza are the expectations of those lower down the pecking order, lesser mortals caught up in striving and self-optimisation, stuck on the elusive search for the best life. When somebody has the means to live the dream, don’t they have a responsibility to share some of that Cristal champagne and Michelin-star chef created magic, with their merely solvent friends and family? After all, it’s everyone’s fantasy, to be so wealthy as to be insulated from the drudgeries of life.As a guest at a big fat Indian wedding, for a few magical days at least one may live as a participant in the Gilded Age, or a character on Succession, where money is used as protection from consequence. The hard up son-in-law on Succession compares being rich with being a superhero and shudders at a $5 million inheritance, calling it a “nightmare”. Because it’s simply not enough to truly live it up, the paltry sum described by another of the scions on the show with a wine analogy, as the difference between “regular decanting” and “hyper decanting”. Ah, the infinite joy derived from observing the peccadilloes of the 1%! However, it is worth noting, when billionaires put their money in trust funds and fixed deposits to earn fat amounts in compounding interest, it isn’t doing anyone else much good. Much better then, when they go all out for explosive style—the phoolwala, caterer, entertainers and tentwalas benefit, not to mention the hosts’ own overall net gain in social capital. Consumption, when wildly over the top, is a euphemism for soft power.AdvertisementSocial media brought the Bezos and Ambani nuptials into every drawing room. Suddenly, for the rest of the world, contemporary weddings are less about sanctifying a union and more about getting the hashtag right. But people are people. The common factor between the guest dripping in diamonds and the scrambling wannabe trying to make sense of so much sparkling bounty is existential ennui — everyone’s trying to wring some last bit of wonder from life — the eternal question being that if we were a thousand times richer, would we be a thousand times happier? These are philosophical quandaries that have surfaced throughout history. Initially, thriving depended more on a larger community but over millennium, the human pursuit of one-upmanship became as important as chasing happiness. Perhaps, the world has to go full circle to come to the conclusion that flourishing involves equal measures of health, wealth and some luck; and time for self cultivation is as important as for amassing riches.When a wedding is too over-the-top, it almost feels like the host is trying to buy a guarantee of a successful marriage. Alas, an Instagram-worthy show doesn’t always equal a fairy-tale ending. If anything, the messy realities of marriage may feel especially deflating, after a spectacular beginning. Marriage is a serious business, a rite of passage, along with birth and death. While a birth provides a sense of purpose and a death provokes introspection on the ultimate realities of life, modern marriages can be narcissistic displays of fancy destinations, exotic jewellery and sweeping tulle outfits. Of course, it is a momentous occasion but there’s something shallow about so much emphasis on creating the perfectly orchestrated event. A humbling reminder, the complications of getting married are nothing compared to the complications of staying married.The writer is director, Hutkay Films