Have the Ambanis jumped the shark?

First appeared on Brown Pundits

Radhika and Anant Ambani finally get married. Mind you their wedding festivites, all in all, started in March of this year. So it essentially stretched on for months.

The latest news today is that Anant gifted his 10 groomsmen, limited edition luxury watches (only 25 pieces), worth $250,000 apiece.

I wish the Ambanis the very best that life has to offer but I’m reflecting that this might go some way in explaining as to why the BJP’s electoral results were so much poorer than expected. I also note that the Gandhis refused to attend the wedding; in a way one can’t buy the attendance of blue bloods?

I’m sounding slightly Waspish here (what to do I live between the two Cambridges) but such excessive and extravagant displays of wealth seems only focused on pleasure and leisure. What I would have much preferred is some old decrepit part of India sensitively restored for the wedding; where is the investment in the country itself.

One could argue that the Ambanis are the very essence and marrow of India then why are they partaking in foreign luxury brands and not patronising in domestic industries.

These are just questions that I’m asking since after all this is easily the most expensive wedding on the planet and history; Mukesh Ambani has spent $600 million on this entire escapade (0.5% of the Ambani family wealth?).

We also had a rather nice wedding but above all it interwove taste, class, tradition with a touch of opulence.

Noblesse obligee demands those who are fortunate to reflect on what they are able to give back to society; one cannot but remember that European nobility patronised the Great Masters, Mozart, Brahms and other such brilliant art. Even Shah Jahan, who was not the wisest or sanest of rules, at least built the tear on the cheek of eternity.

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