Dr Sarath Obeysekera

This month is full of weddings where five start hotels earn a fortune and parents of brides and grooms empty their hard earned coffers to the bottom and even scrape or borrow to show off the society that they are better than other .!

I was at a wedding yesterday ,in fact in two weddings on the same day ,and last week again in two weddings on the same day ,moving from one five star  hotel to another ,where my wife has to change her not only sari ,blouse ,shoes, jewelry but also the hair style  to suit her clothes and  falling hair due extensive coloring an straightening ,each costing a fortune ,me wearing the same black suit with different colours to suit the day and night function ,

Last night- wedding during the morning time was one of the most extravagant wedding where wooden box which  is  replica of an ancient storage box pettagma” was used to put the expensive ,over calorized wedding cake ,and on top of it another small bag of imported sweets and a coin of 5 rupees made of  chocolate and a fancy cup cake , ( you need to carry a silly-silly bag to take the goodies home ) and the bride groom wearing the attire of upcountry tradition which look very elegant ( yet does not reveal the healthy of un healthy shape of the groom ) and after inquiring found that the groom was of not from family of upcountry origin ! ) ,and the Poruwa”made of teak wood and hall full of white expensive flowers (they say the flower  arrangement costs millions) ,then half clad almost naked young  well shaped dance group performing a dance like in a nightclub  ( last week wedding was the center stage of dancers of middles eastern and Italian culture with full of belly and back side shaking and revealing skinny legs thru transparent clothes) ,where my wife was not looking at the dance act but at me to watch whether I watch it with some undesirable inner craze !,who aroused everybody’s desired young or old ,and then walked out with a flash ,and everyone expecting them to come back and shake their bellies and their back sides >

Why all these tamashas when the whole country is having bad time because of cost of living spiraling up due to VAT and rupee sliding downwards daily due to either mismanagement of this lot or previous lot ??

Can our families both bride and bridegroom’s sit together and decide to have charm celebration and decide to donate that money to 100 poor families to educate their children or to build a cancer ward ?

I have forgotten to mention that the bride of one of the wedding was of European origin, and hall full of fair men women (strangely the bride’s side decided to put them round an elevated table to show other local who may have not seen many white folks together rather than mixing them with locals), and I noted that they keep looking at not so civilized local with strange gaze and not talking much with them.

We should bear in the that some Europeans getting married to Sri Lankans prefer to have the wedding in Sri Lanka for half of the price with grandiose plans for the couple to ride on an elephant in a Boutique hotel or in a jungle hotel hideout, I assume that they it will remind them of the daunting elephantine” task of sustaining the married life.:

In one instance I was flabbergasted to hear a fully born Sinhala bride groom born and bred in England who could not speak a word of Sinhala reciting a speech in Sinahala –written in English letters (which looked so funny) and he did not know the meaning of any word?? and showing the poor not so civilized locals that they respect like Ali G says !!

Good old days an elder in the family makes speeches with advises and blessings to the couple ,but nowadays best man or flower girl ( woman ) brings the lap top and a projector ,who show photos and videos  of the bride or groom wearing diapers and running around falling and sometime look very funny  ( surely stolen from face books)  with only one advise if you do not love each other  you may love thy neighbor” ,making everybody laugh their hearts out

Finally when we came out of all these wedding, I told my wife who was blabbering of how beautiful or ugly the bride is and what an expensive dress she had and also hinting that I was looking too much and the belly dancers, that we Sri Lank and should wear our own national dress rather than European attire; like Indians.

Finally I need to give a message to all the brides, groom, and their parents. Wedding planners, and of course all flower suppliers with a name and a suffix flora” to spend that effort and money to grow more and more crops to serve the nation with cheaper Mukunuwanna or Gorukola ,and make it a national habit to donate to the needy

What I hear is that the divorce rate in Sri Lanka is high may be due to the fact that the disagreement between the couple based on claims that some relatives of each other’s side were not so nice to them during the wedding >>>>>

Why spend all this money for nothing >>>>>>>

Forgot to mention about a wedding of a child of a prominent politician who invited over 2500 guests where the marquee built in the car park due to lack of space in the hotel ,was airconditioned !

Dr Sarath Obeysekera