New Delhi, March 13 -- It was only last year that Parliament discussed a private member's bill to limit "wasteful expenditure" at weddings and special occasions. Congress MP Jasbir Singh Gill wrote in the objects and reasons statement of his bill: ". (wedding) has become a status symbol and a symbol of show-off . It is high time for our country to stand up against this unmeaningful and wasteful expenditure." Similar private member bills, none of which were expected to pass but left some observations on record, were introduced by other MPs in 2016 and 2017.

How quaint that enterprise at thrift in our weddings sounds just now as the nation emerges from the celebrations in the run-up to the wedding, or what is being called the "pre-wedding"...