The Beauty Of Celebration  

By A S Joel Kumar

Deputy Bureau Chief

Sakshi TV

In our country marriage is a time for celebration in every home. But over the years it is turning out to be an event involving several professionals, skilled and unskilled worker. For any marriage in India, Shadi Mandap is a must. After this reception ceremony is planned as grand as marriage. To rate a marriage as grand, the first thing that counts is the decoration of Shadi mandap and the premises where the guests are seated. To impress the guests at the very first sight, best of decorators are hired much in advance.

Despite modernisation, majority of the marriages are fixed based on good muhurats. Marriages are performed during particular duration of time. It may be for three months at a stretch. So decorators generally are in demand during that period. In a marriage season, once a decorator accepts an order, first thing he would do is to go to a flower market. There he generally selects ten different kind of flowers. In a day he may visit the flower market several times depending upon the orders.

"During marriage season we get about 20 orders for decoration. Once an order is taken our assistants work day and night to fix shadi madaps and reception stages and other decoration. Sometime clients even make changes for decoration at the last minute, which we have to manage with our workers", says Azeem, who is in the business of decorations for the past 15 years in Habsiguda area.

Once the flowers and decoration material is taken they are dumpted at the function halls and marriage pandals. Now the real work of decoration begins. The decorators employ 25 to 30 assistants or labour to fix the marriage pandals and other decoration material. The mandap is fixed and flowers are arranged on the stage background as per the design ordered by the client.

"Generally for any order one day is enough to set up the pandal. But for some orders it will take several days. I have 30 workers with me. We have to monitor their work day and night", says Mohammed Younus, decorator settled in Champapet area of Hyderabad.

Marriage season no doubt is a hectic time for decorators. But the decorators and the workers involved in decoration will have not enough work other than marriage season. "Most of the Hindu marriages happen in a particular season. If we get other religion works we will be lucky if not we will be without work", says Faheemuddin, proprietor of TAF decorations in city.

Decorators during marriage are no doubt busy. But do they make profit. "Sir it all depends upon the price of flowers. These prices are different everyday. We take orders one month in advance. The day we purchase flowers, the rate may be high or low . We have to bear with it. Now it is demonetisation and that is also a problem now for us. ", says Narsing Rao, who is into the business of decoration for the past 15 years in Hyderabad.

To work under Hyderabad-based decorators there are workers coming from neighboring states like Maharastra and Karnataka. They are here during the marriage season earn money for some time and get back to their native place. "I am coming here since 10 years. I come during the marriage season work at the function halls and stay at my decorators office. After working for three months I will go back to my village in Maharastra" says Chand Pasha of Maharastra.

There are some workers who are involved in different work at their native place , but work in function halls in Hyderabad. "Sir, my name is Abbas Ali . I belong to Chincholi village in Karnataka. I work in a tailoring shop in my village. But during marriage season I come to Hyderabad work and daily earn Rs 600 to Rs 1000. Most of the time food is taken care by the marriage party. I enjoy my work and also earn some money before going to my native place", says Abbas Ali.

In our city there are high end clients who employ event managers for weddings. These event managers look after everying aspect of the wedding. That includes even the decoration part. Here the event managers hire some artists as per the requirement of the client. Later, they involve the decorators to fix the pandals and other

settings. "There are clients who want a particular concept decoration. As per their requirements we arrange. This concept decoration is also good as it involves the expertiese of artists and decorators. More so it is livelihood to many who work on the sets fixing them" says Radhe Shyam, a event manager working in Chennai and Hyderabad.

For some time foam material concepts have been a big hit with children birthday parties or children related gatherings. Now it is slowly catching up with marraige parties. Hyderabad-based JNTU fine arts graduate Raghavendra is one of the few artistes who popularising foam concepts."We get orders from clients on different concepts. Once order is finalised we start our paintings on the foam. Later cut them and fix them in the marriage pandals" says Raghavendra.

We have big huge settings almost on the lines of film sets being erected for celebrity film stars and politicians grand marriages. Film art directors are also involved in these sets. In these also there are several technicians and workers who are employed.

In India, wedding industry is estimated to be one lakh crore industry. It is growing at the rate of 25 to 30 per cent. In this decoration share is 10,000 crore industry. With India's 125 crore population with 25 crore families, and in that 50 per cent of them below he age of 29 years, wedding industry is bound to grow further.