Wedding Cards

18th January 2012


Om Gan Ganapataye Namah.

We cordially invite you to the wedding reception of our daughter..........

As I was reading this card I remembered how some years ago a friend had spoken animatedly about a wedding she’d been invited to and showed me a very expensive wedding card. It was made in silver. It was in fact a large silver sheet encased in a red and gold glass case. The inscriptions on it boasted of numerous pre-wedding ceremonies and an uber expensive venue for the wedding. Years later, we now seem to have further graduated to wedding cards with semi precious stones and Swarovski crystals. Today, the wedding card market is huge and people are more than willing to spend a bomb on the piece of paper called invitation. I just read somewhere that the 1 lakh rupee card has already hit the market.The basic purpose of the cards is inviting and informing. But over the years they've evolved. Maybe it all began with humble post-card size invites and now we have A4 size booklet-format cards. Our belief in ‘bada hai to behtar hai’ is only getting behtar.

Some cards remind me of Binaca geet mala where Amin Sayani read out names of people who had requested a song. The card has a long list of names of 'everybodies'. Chunnu, baby, munna, babu, chinu, Somu kaka, Radha kaku, Kalpesh Mama, Kaveri Mami, Rekha Atya, Soni Tai and Samar Jiju with chitu.......the list goes on. I’ve also heard that some people get offended if they fail to find their name on this ‘who’s who’ list. Such is our love to see our name in print. Then there are other cards that flaunt the poetic skill of a family member( usually the bride or groom's mother). An elaborate piece of poetry where a lot of effort has been put into getting the rhyme scheme correct, finds center place. The unwritten rule says- Never forget words of praise for this work o art. To add, there is this RSVP thing which we don't know and don't believe in. Yet as a rule we print it.

Anyway, whether minimalistic or lavish, what struck me common among all cards was the image of a god mostly Ganesha or a holy shloka or the name of the family deity from whom blessings are sought. Some even go to the extent of sticking haldi-kum-kum and rice grains on the card. However once the wedding is over, invitees like me are faced with the challenge of doing away with the wedding card. Some of us with a creative side try and re-decorate and recycle the envelope. But the invite itself is useless unless you want to pursue a ‘hatke’ hobby of collecting them. Most cards are torn and shown the trash can. It’s sad to see this expensive paper waste. It’s sadder to see our gods and goddesses lying face down in vegetable peel, pencil shavings, crushed beer cans, diapers and what not.

It’s high time we change our mindset. An invitation over the phone or an e- invite should be welcome. But for those who still insist on printed paper, I urge you to spare Ganesha and rather print the photos of the bride and the groom. At least we’ll know whose wedding we are expected to attend.