an 8 year old post republished....3

courting debt and wedding death

it happens every time and  i  saw it again last month.

it was for the marriage of  my  uncle's daughter. 
 food was arranged for about 1000 people. the bill ?
 not  less than a lakh of rupees. and the ornaments
 weighed about a kilogram  and she visited the jeweller a
dozen times to select the items and to change each of them
 at least twice. and the sarees should  have costed nothing 
less than two lakhs.

we  sat down to finalise the accounts the next day.  my uncle
who is a retired school teacher did the sums and said if he could
 raise 5 lakhs somehow all his debts could be paid of.  can he sell
 off some property ? no. for the marriage of  the elder one
 what ever  land he had had been disposed of.  can he commute

the pension ? no. it has already been done to make the girl a doctor . 

now  what to do ? no one knows . not in the least my uncle . 
he is however relieved that everyone agreed that the function 
was grant.  he told me that prestige should be protected
 at any cost ,  money or no money. 

1.  is it time for a crusade to bring us keralites out of the false
 prestige  we live with ?
   
2.  will a new law limiting expenditure on marriages help ?

3. can we try social boycott  of extravagant marriages?
 

 i do not have an answer to his debt problems, i only hope that
 he does not scribble solutions in a suicide note. very many
 suicide notes in malayalam say unable to pay off debts and
  hence not interested in living.