Golbguru
The business of wedding gifts
Golbguru is a 20-something graduate student working hard towards getting his PhD in the USA. He is an avid blogger on money management and his fortnightly columns look at the dark side of spending, and how to make your moolah work for you.
RECENTLY, I received a wedding invitation from a good friend in India. Although, the wedding was to take place in accordance with the strictest religious guidelines, I was pleased to find these lines towards the end of the invitation:
"Presents in Blessings Only. No Bouquets Please."
Why was I pleased? Well, there are many different reasons:
1. In most Indian weddings, it's a norm to accept wedding gifts, and my friend was going against the grain with that tradition. It takes guts to be *different* - and that kind of boldness deserves some appreciation.
2. This dude was not 'rich'. He is an average middle class guy (and so is his would-be bride), and there must have been a great temptation to look forward for some "income" in the form of presents. He clearly resisted this temptation.
3. Whenever this topic of accepting wedding gifts is raised, most people are too chicken to admit that they are in fact "expecting" gifts. And, whenever they have the guts to decline the gifts, they give all sorts of excuses like: what will the guests think? will it be considered rude to not accept gift? .. and so on. Consequently, they never go as far as clearly stating "no presents" in their wedding invitations, and eventually, the wedding does turn out to be a gift fest. Later, these people will claim, "We were not expecting gifts ... but most people brought them.. and it doesn't look good to turn them down, so we accepted them anyways". I was proud that my friend didn't resort to such spineless explanations. He took a proactive stance and made his no-presents policy clear on his invitation.
4. With gifts out of picture, I am sure the wedding guests will have more time to concentrate on the sanctity of the ceremonies.
5. There won't be post-wedding cursing like, "Mr. XYZ gave us a totally worthless gift - he must be a stingy miser". This is good for everybody's happiness. :)
"Presents in Blessings Only. No Bouquets Please."
Why was I pleased? Well, there are many different reasons:
1. In most Indian weddings, it's a norm to accept wedding gifts, and my friend was going against the grain with that tradition. It takes guts to be *different* - and that kind of boldness deserves some appreciation.
2. This dude was not 'rich'. He is an average middle class guy (and so is his would-be bride), and there must have been a great temptation to look forward for some "income" in the form of presents. He clearly resisted this temptation.
3. Whenever this topic of accepting wedding gifts is raised, most people are too chicken to admit that they are in fact "expecting" gifts. And, whenever they have the guts to decline the gifts, they give all sorts of excuses like: what will the guests think? will it be considered rude to not accept gift? .. and so on. Consequently, they never go as far as clearly stating "no presents" in their wedding invitations, and eventually, the wedding does turn out to be a gift fest. Later, these people will claim, "We were not expecting gifts ... but most people brought them.. and it doesn't look good to turn them down, so we accepted them anyways". I was proud that my friend didn't resort to such spineless explanations. He took a proactive stance and made his no-presents policy clear on his invitation.
4. With gifts out of picture, I am sure the wedding guests will have more time to concentrate on the sanctity of the ceremonies.
5. There won't be post-wedding cursing like, "Mr. XYZ gave us a totally worthless gift - he must be a stingy miser". This is good for everybody's happiness. :)
Indian Rupee Exchange Rate
No comments:
Post a Comment