Twenty Dishes Too Many

Several attempts have been made over the years to cut down the Kashmiri’s penchant for ostentatious weddings, both by the government and the militants. The latter succeeded to some extent, the fear factor kicking in, but state directives were generally disregarded. Most of the expense at any Kashmir wedding is on making the all-important wazwan as lavish as possible. With around four quintals of mutton being cooked at an average wedding, many a family were left in debt after the ceremony. In 2004, the state government issued a ‘guest control order’ which put restrictions on the number of guests and also the quantity of meat served. The order allowed only 200 guests on the groom’s side, of which only 50 instead of the 125 or so could accompany the baraat. As for meat, a maximum of 100 kg of meat was allowed for the wazwan and 25 kg for the ring ceremony. But as expected, the order annoyed many people, forcing the government to withdraw it. A few years later, the wazas (chefs) came forward with the idea of reducing the number of dishes rather than guests. They started the ‘dish control’ initiative, wherein they would serve only a seven-course wazwan (instead of 15-25). After the recent trend of extravagant weddings, Islamic scholar Fayaz Ahmad Zaroo had launched ‘Humsafar’, a marriage council which arranges matrimonial alliances on the condition that the couple opt for a simple wedding.