IF 2024 will be known as the year of seismic general elections, it will also be remembered as the one of unforgettable weddings.

In India, Mumbai is still aglitter in the after-glow of the wedding of Anant Ambani, son of India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani. The festivities spread over weeks of uncapped extravagance. The total cost has been underestimated at Indian rupees 5,000 crores.

Celebrities to whom a photographer’s flash is as irresistible as a flame is to a moth, gathered in their hundreds. An underdressed Justin Bieber and less costly performers entertained Ambani’s overdressed, obsequious guests. A pantheon of Bollywood idols succumbed to the gravitational pull of his wealth.

BJP’s PM Narendra Modi flew in to give the couple his blessing. The pampered VIP guests included two former British PMs, Tony Blair and Boris Johnson. Rishi Sunak would have completed a hat-trick.

Notable absentees were members of the Gandhi family. They remember that when Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother Indira Gandhi married Feroze Gandhi in 1942, she wore not clusters of jewellery retrieved from the vaults of Mumbai’s diamond market, but earrings and bracelets made from fresh flowers. Her khadi sari had been woven from thread spun by her father Pandit........

© Dawn