Music troupe and wedding receptions -- Inevitably married by society

You are in and around Chennai and a friend invites you for a wedding reception and you accept; entering the place, the first thing you will surely notice is a local music troupe singing hit tracks from kollywood. Whatever be the circumstances your friend is in…be it your friend is in financial crisis out of wedding arrangements or simply he hates spoiling the get-together mood brewing in the wedding reception, music troupe is a must.

Amidst the gossips and get-together hugs everything gets absorbed; even if the world falls apart or the bride and groom decide not to marry… everything… No one has an ear for this troupe except for kids who are generally ignored during such events, elderly people who are usually avoided and introverts who wish to avoid such events but are forced to attend. These are the only people for whom the troupe plays.

My friend’s parents were contemplating on whether to arrange for a music troupe for his wedding reception. His uncle was convincing enough for taking the music troupe off the task-list and helped the hour long discussion to end. Arrangements were on a full swing and invitations were ready in a fortnight. Upon seeing the invitation, many of the invitees called upon. Some of them expressed the need for a music troupe performance; many wanted to know if they had any financial crunch; only very few wished for the wedding and confirmed their presence. Now to keep rumors at bay, a troupe performance was finally arranged in a hurry.

Music performances were a part of the wedding in olden days when the celebration use to take place for more than a day and has no relevance in the present trends. The society we live in thrusts upon such obligations that may be contradictory to our thoughts and way of life yet we have to concede to the fact that we are a part of a larger society.

linked...yet lonely

Endless list of friends, known, once known, just seen, unknown...the list is really endless and thats social networking all about. The sites offer a voyueristic pleasure of intruding into someone else's private life and this keeps them in business.

I think its like the narcotics...once addicted you crave for it, more and more. I met a college kid while travelling to Tiruchirappali. Six hour journey by bus, I killed time mostly by watching this kid's activity. He had a mobile application hooked on to the networking sites and he was into his own customised world. In the mobile-network fringe areas, when the data got disrupted, he got so frustrated and restless in his seat. He was into a virtual world where one need not yearn or earn for pleasure. Once he said he had lots of friends, three hours later he said he was all alone!

Now who is to blame? The social network sites? users? society?