The wedding season is on, and week after week, there are dozens of weddings going all out to make theirs the biggest and grandest. The city witnessed the high profile wedding of Bollywood actress Paoli Dam to Businessman Arjun Deb at Vivanta by Taj, Guwahati, but on the same weekend, there was another wedding and this one is going to steal your hearts!
Paloma Dutta and Ved are two individuals who have set an example so wonderful that you start to think whether wedding expenditures are actually wasteful...
Paloma of Guwahati, who now works as an Editor at Penguin Random House, New Delhi and her husband Ved who is an Academician and a Researcher had a more meaningful and memorable wedding. The couple in their wedding invitations put in a note stating that they wanted to gift children with special needs and so they requested their guests that the wedding gifts should be either ‘specialized learning tools’ (that was specified in the note) or could also be common stationary items like crayons, pencils, erasers, notebooks etc.
Caption: A photo of the note in the wedding invitation
Moreover, the money that they received at the wedding as gifts was also given for the underprivileged children.
The couple approached a Guwahati based NGO Sishu Sarothi who collected donation in both cash/cheque and kind and thus shared all their gifts from the wedding. The duo shared several hundred gifts with the children and Rs. 86,500 in cash and cheque. Several guests also ordered special learning tools online from e-commerce websites.
Paloma Dutta, speaking to G Plus said, “My husband Ved and I, like to help people whenever we can, however we can. As middle class people, it is very difficult to help people as our money is used up for everyday concerns. Doing greater good is difficult. But we thought, with the wedding, it would be easier to bring people together. We are lucky to be surrounded by people who want to do good things and help.”
While weddings are sentimental and hold space in the society, Paloma feels that grand Indian weddings are also wasteful. “The response that we got from our guests was overwhelming. They were supportive and it proves that if you give them the opportunity, they can do good things. We just put in the note and did not imagine that it would be so impactful”, added Paloma.
Paloma and Ved who have known each other for around 12 years are both working professionals and have had a love marriage.
We wish this wonderful couple the very best in the future!
