This first appeared on LinkedIn.
Back in the 1980s, there were kids I knew in Sadashiv Peth in Pune who had this standard set for the Ganapati festivals and family get-togethers in which they imitated a radio cricket commentator speaking rapidly in some garbled tongue that sounded like English (but wasn’t), starting slow and rising into a crescendo, without understanding or speaking a word of English, or in fact, making any sense. Everyone loved it, and the parents of the kid looked at him proudly, while his friends were jealous he could do what he did.
Ditto the Ambani wedding.
Because their wealth is relatively new (as compared to, say, the Tatas or the Birlas), they are simply doing what they believe the wealthy are supposed to do, behave like, and celebrate. That’s why the whole wedding looks like a Karan Johar movie. But that’s because it is the 21st century. If this were the 1990s, it would have been a copy of a Sooraj Barjatya film. It’s that simple. Life imitates art, in this case. Whether we approve or not is immaterial. We cannot appoint ourselves the purveyors of taste and denounce their choices.
That being said, they are a public family, and they are so by their own choice. They voluntarily put out details of the celebrations, invited the press, released photos and videos to the world. To now claim, not just by them but anyone, that their celebrations are private and mustn’t be commented on or judged is a bit rich, methinks. Once you put yourself out there and expose yourself voluntarily, you are fair game for commentary. You can’t blame people for having opinions and expressing them based on what you have not just chosen to show, but specifically publicised for general consumption.
What is my personal view? Frankly, I find it distasteful but only to the extent of how I define my tastes, which as we all know, are subjective. One man’s meat and all that. On the other hand, I do believe the Ambanis represent the Great Indian Dream, and they have every right to live it up. People like me, who find the whole demonstration of vulgarity nauseating, are few and far between. I can bet that an overwhelming majority of quasi-educated urban Indian families look up at them and wish they could exchange their lives for theirs. This is a perspective people like me need to build, whether we want to run for office or sell jam.
Why is that? Because of one small incident that I remember from the early days of our jam-making when we were deciding that out of the 17 flavours we tried in our pilot, which 6 or 7 to continue with and which ones to drop. We realised that while we unanimously hated the Strawberries & Lavender, it was indeed a best-seller. I remember this because it was one of us (I do not remember who) who said:
Your personal taste and preference are immaterial if the market has voted with their wallets. Are we in business to dictate taste to the market or to make a profit? In any case, if there’s a discrepancy between our opinions and reality, should we attempt to change our opinions or blame reality for being wrong?!
As for jam-making, so for politics. The left liberals must understand the right-wing not through their intellectualising talking heads on TV or social media, but by understanding how the common voting public looks at things and what their dreams and aspirations are. It is one thing to want to change society and hence, enter politics. It is altogether another to blindly presume, despite evidence to the contrary, that the society one wants already exists and behave and build one’s political plan based on that faulty assumption.
As a liberal, for example, the Ram Mandir may not be an issue at all, leave alone an emotional one, for you. But for millions of voters out there, given a choice between a government that promises jobs and one that promises a grand temple, we cannot fool ourselves into thinking they’d choose the former just because WE would. It is a fatal flaw to assume the entire society to mirror oneself even when reality clearly disproves it, and then continue to behave as if it’s true, all the time blaming reality for being flawed!
That’s the sign of insanity.
When the entire world around you believes that covering your genitals, even in the hottest of weather, is necessary, to go around naked is to be prepared to be thrown into a mental asylum. Or to start a religion.
There’s no third option.
So, let us stop blaming reality for not adhering to our view of it, and either get with the program, or start the so-called revolution we keep on whining about. Just sitting around wringing our hands isn’t going to change anything except our moods (just like in times of extreme stress, shouting out abusive words makes one feel better in some weird way). So, unless that is your objective, I believe we can stop crinkling our collective noses at the Ambani wedding, and either start working at creating such wealth and value ourselves, or then ignoring them and their style of celebration altogether. Either way, I think this would be my first and last comment on the nuptials (and I only made it because of a heated discussion last night with another friend who dared me to put my opinion out there).
I have (far) more interesting things to do. Like run a company. And raise a kid.
