An Appreciation Note: The Ambani Wedding Resets The Image Of India And In A Good Way

I remember watching an interview of Nita Ambani, the Ambani matriarch, years ago, laughing away in an interview "Anant keeps bringing these sick and injured dogs and cats home, and now we have 500+ animals in the (then) house!". That was it. Subconsciously, to me, even though we were miles and billions apart, the Ambanis and I had a common cause - animals.

I think ever since that little innocuous moment, I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the Ambanis. When Jio launched, I actively ported to it from Airtel, (but mainly because it was so much cheaper!), my ecommerce platform of choice has been Ajio for many years now, and I own a few humble Reliance stocks. But that's not the reason, but the effect of this mild admiration for India's first business family. Even though I passively was on top of the weddings of Isha and Akash, by the time Anant's much-touted never ending nuptials rolled around, I was fully invested. It was the first time I'd heard of Vantara, a conservation effort for wildlife and other rescues, but it was like the childhood menagerie of Anant's that I'd known about in passing had evolved as had Anant and myself, and grown into this large-scale project that only an Ambani could. Being an animal lover, and also being painfully aware of how it's usually money, and not intent that prevents most animal rescue efforts, I was proud that finally someone with an unlimited amount of capital was leading something where it was needed the most.

For me, having the pre-wedding at Vantara wasn't a "whitewash" project for Anant's wild bachelor days or a "colossal waste of money" as projected by many of the Ambani critics, but rather, an opportunity for the world to unite over a cause of environment and the animals. The wedding only happened to be incidental. I don't care how many millions the Ambanis spent on the wedding - it's chump change for them anyway - they managed to have the likes of Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates sipping drinks at an animal conservation centre. They may not turn vegans overnight, but can you image the subconscious signal of this? That the world's richest can invest in causes beyond the human species? Could you imagine Elon Musk working on a mission with a war footing to repopulate the earth not with humans, but with the animals that are close to extinction? Or a Zuck using his platform to promote vegetarianism rather than raising "the best quality beef and feeding the cows beer" on his multi-million dollar ranches?

I'd be honest, I wasn't clued in with the cruise part of the wedding as life happened and simultaneously as the Ambanis were commandeering whole European port towns in their obscenely expensive designer drags, I was also hopping between hills and cosy cafes in Himachal, but by the time the actual wedding started in July, I was fully tuned in.

To say that I wasn't jealous or repented that I wasn't one of the bazillion invitees would be a lie. Can you think of a single person who genuinely would reject being at the spectacle of a lifetime? Or at least an invite made you feel like you made it to the top 0.01% of India. Because even by the standard of the Grandiose Indian Weddings, the Ambani wedding was an unapologetic fest of the extremes - the best of everything. The best of fashion, the best of jewelry, the best of music, the best of decor, best of food, but above all, the best of India's culture, traditional and religious richness. And one invite could make you in on all the action rubbing shoulders with your favourite Bollywood, even Hollywood, and other elite.

But unfortunately, I got my fill of the wedding from social media as did the rest of India. I probably refreshed Viral Bhayani's Instagram feed more times than I probably have for my board results. Though more than the celebs -- and damn everyone imaginable was there -- I was curious how the wedding in all its ritualism would pan out. Would they fast track the rituals to not make it too boring? Would the actual ceremonies be part of a closed-door family event, while the world only got to see the likes of Rhianna and J Bieber gyrating in their bare minimums? Could they even top what had already happened?

But I was pleasantly proven wrong. The wedding happened with all its Hindu traditions, customs and rituals as it is and then some. Nita Ambani proudly explained the significance of the Pheras and the Kanyadaan - both in Hindi and English - before the ceremonies began. On the "Shubh Ashirwad" ceremony, the holiest and most regarded priests, gurus and other holymen were flown in (including my favourite Sadhvi Bhagwati ji from Rishikesh) and treated with due veneration by the family. All the mantras, shlokas and paaths were performed by the priests, even if long, even if unintelligible to a chunk of the attendees. Anant is said to have sung along all the mantras - Sanskrit -- during his pheras and other ceremonies, a lot of which happened with the background score provided by the goddess-like voice of Shreya Ghoshal herself.

And from all accounts, I know the venue itself was a recreation of a temple town of Varanasi. A little research showed that Nita Ambani had personally traveled there months before the wedding to bring in the best of Varanasi to Mumbai, including the now famous Benarasi Paan and Chaat stalls right there at their own Jio Convention Centre. Talking of food, the Ambanis upheld their own values and morals. Despite there being an entire 35,000 sqft devoted to gourmet cuisine from around the world, no meat was served at the wedding by the famously vegetarian Ambanis. According to Curly Tales, the Ambani wedding menu included 2500 vegetarian-only dishes. Served by European servers, no less. (As an aside, it's something I've appreciated as a vegan even about Reliance Mart -- none of them sell meat products.)

Other than being flown in first class and put up at 5-star hotels, the foreign guests were kitted out with the best of designer Indianwear and jewelery and not only because the Ambanis could afford it, but it ensured that the world assimilated into the Indian culture, not the other way around. For once. IDK about you, but my colonially-bitter ass found some redemption in seeing Kim and Khloe in Sarees and John Cena and Boris Johnsons in a sherwani respectively.

I know my tweet about Kim Kardashian's rather inappropriate pose with Ganpati made it to an article, but conversely, it is only the Ambanis who could make this icon of all things American - sex, money, skin and materialism -- get wrapped up in Indian clothes for three whole days and then conclude her trip with a visit to ISKCON where she -- even if for the cameras - covered head to toe, was seen serving Indian food - one that she's famously called "disgusting" on her show. Kim, with her 630 MILLION followers -- seems to have the 'India Fever' as most do after a visit. "You look the happiest you have in years, I think you should just move to India" says the top comment by a Black American account.

Justin Bieber posted not one, not two, but 5 posts (not Stories) about his time in India to his 5000+ million followers.

This is what the Ambani wedding did. Not only did it get pretty much the top 0.1% of India - financial, popular, political and religious - on the same platform, but it made the West take notes. Sure, the Ambanis, the richest Indians, don't represent real India, but they turned a wedding into a showcase of Indian culture, rich heritage, and really, that we ain't all slumdog millionaires. (but some are billionaires.)

And despite all the bad press she's been getting for "being an attention seeker" on some of the forums I frequent, I must make a special mention for Nita Ambani here. And not just for her emeralds of which by now I've lost track which is the biggest. She's not the first or the only rich billionaire wife in India. There's been the demure Birla wives, the Godrej's and many others. At best, there's a Natasha Poonawala, best known for her avant-garde fashion and her hobnobbing with the cream of the west, but noone puts their position and personality to such an impactful use as Mrs Ambani. She's the perfect foil to a humble and rather reticent Mukesh. If he's the quite businessman making deals and bringing in the billions, she helps distribute that money to proliferate culture and tradition as only that amount of financial power can. The eponymous Nita Ambani Culture Centre in Mumbai is the closest to the Met or MoMa we could get. It's easy to slink into the background and live off your billions as a housewife, but Nita is a woman on a mission. Between heading a school, several large scale societal and culture projects, she also seems to be the hostess with the mostest. If not for Nita's enthusiastic hosting, and in the days of "mera hindi utna accha nahi hai", her chaste and unaffected speeches in Hindi, the wedding could've easily turned into a rich glamfest without a soul and purpose.

I understand that to a simple mind the wedding could look like a 'vulgar display of wealth', and how some of the biggest criticism of the last few months has been about how they should've donated all this money instead. In ways, the idea is rooted in socialism. Give away what you work for. Everything that's yours belongs to the society. But answer yourself honestly, if YOU could spend <1% of your net worth on "donating to the poor/doing charity" or have a proper wedding that suits your status and financial stature, would you do the former? What if you could do both? The Ambanis are no strangers to charity. They're involved in various CSR initiatives and support or run many organizations within healthcare, education and animal welfare. Not to mention the Reliance industries employ over 300k people directly, but the way I look at it, the expenses of the wedding itself were simply redistributed within India, from one business family to thousands of others. (save for the <1% they spent on the Western performers)

It's easy to hate, but let the Ambanis do what they do the best. Spend their billions on unabashedly showcasing the best of India -- its culture and heritage, love of religion and respect for those who uphold it, warm hospitality, care for animals, and giving the average Indian a glimpse of a lifestyle they could only see in the movies, if that.

Although I must warn, good luck to us plebs trying to have a lavish wedding after this and even the fanciest of them looking mild in comparison.