Day marriages beat the big fat Indian wedding

The Capital's weddings may be getting bigger by the day, but some 80 villages around Delhi are set to reverse that trend. And there is a lesson in this for all those city slickers who are spending huge amounts of money — and time — on the Big Fat Indian wedding.

People in villages like Neelwal, Bakarwal, Kanjhawla, Ghevra etc — in Outer Delhi — disgusted by the idea of an unruly and expensive, wedding

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, are planning day-time weddings that are low-cost, no-liquor, no-DJ affairs.

"Late nights weren't suitable for older people; it also meant men getting drunk, thereby causing crimes and accidents. Add to that there were incidents of gate-crashing as well," says Dr Naresh Kumar, a resident of Hiren Kudna village and general secretary, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee. Kumar aims to take this trend across the city's 362 villages. Some 25 daytime marriages have already been solemnised since last month.

Choudhary Anaar Singh, Pradhan of the Teekri village, says these wedding ceremonies start at 3 pm and wrap up by 7 pm. Villagers are saving around Rs 50,000 on electricity alone. And since there's no DJ music, social interaction is being given a boost.

Choudhary Kishan Chand, head of the 3600 odds

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(units), says that while an average monthly farmer's income ranges between Rs 10,000 and 15,000, wedding expenses were going up to Rs 5 lakh, including dowry.

On Chand's agenda are issues like "dowry-less" weddings and curbing female foeticide. How so? "We want to bring back the

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system, which was more egalitarian," says Kumar.