How big is your balloon?

At his wedding, George Clooney smiled one of his thoughtful smiles. That was close to his Omega watch advert. The Mona Liza-smile is Clooney’s calling card. He looked dapper in his grey suit, and his new wife Amal Alamuddin in her print-skirt grabbed all eyes. The wedding may have left enough food for media.

Paparazzi might have had a field day. For long, they had been without right stuff. And we are already tired of celebs-showing-off- their-stuff that fills many tabloids. Of late there haven’t been many takers for “curve stories” in page 3 either. The wedding gala in Italy was manna out of blue. Now for some time UK tabloids would run “The couple flaunting their stuff on the beach, at shopping, walking along New York City sidewalk, checking in a luxury hotel, checking out another”. That won’t end there. You could expect more pungent stuff. For example: “Clooney looks wonderful after gala wedding, his new wife in printed frock taking the sun through goggles”

There may be even hotter stuff many Indian readers find offensive. Let’s don’t wad in sensual waters any more. The star wedding in Venice had been a long awaited one. It came with a bang, causing media to flock. The couple reportedly took special care to keep details under wraps. Some say workers at the wedding site had to take vow of secrecy. Their mobile phones had to be switched off. Also special measures were in place to stop paparazzi from snooping around. No matter they could have got what they wanted. They knew their game.

One interesting report said Clooney’s hands were shaking as he cut the wedding cake. Except for this, everything could go down well with reason. Why he shivered if he shivered at all? This three-Golden Globe award winning actor mightn’t have been shy. And that wasn’t his debut marriage at all. Was he acting a part that should have been OK on ‘reel-life’. Or was the journalist cooking up a story? Who knows! As for actors, the thin line between life and reality often gets blurred. Everything they do, thus, could become fiction. We also don’t want them as just ordinary mortals. Yes, the wedding was grand. Their special boat journey, followed by paparazzi with huge cameras, would remind you of British queen’s Themes river journey sometime ago.

Another wedding of equal buzz and noise was of Kim Kardashian’s knot with Kanye West. Hollywood weddings have parallels. That is like a balloon being blown up. Each wedding would try to excel the one before it. Everything crazy would feature. At first, it would come with clue in tabloid. But both parties would deny it right away. As days pass, more clues and speculations emerge. In a short while, somebody from either party’s family would almost confirm it. The buzz would go. The balloon now gets slowly blown up. What with the gala festivity, the balloon becomes bigger and bigger. On the wedding day, the balloon would be like close to exploding. As an inevitable turn, just in three months (predictably the longest) the star couple would part ways. Now the balloon is exploded.

As for ordinary westerns, wedding is a simple ceremony. They don’t give a damn about making it even simpler. They would invite only a few. Just friends and family. No hype and buzz. Writer Henry Miller described how his fictitious hero in one novel was shocked by wedding. After many months of dating, some of his friends advised him to marry Mona. They went to a register’s with friends. The whole procedure made him sick. He felt like he was being trapped. The unsmiling officials, the sudden change of expression of friends affected him deeply. As soon as the wedding was over he ran out holding the hands of Mona( if I remember well).

That shows another side of Western life. To remain in one’s ordinariness isn’t as easy as one thinks. Elsewhere one philosopher said, “the greatest achievement in life is remaining in absolute ordinariness” We are living in a world full of extraordinary people. Everybody manages to be different. Nobody is happy with what they are. And big wedding gala is just another way of showing off one’s importance. Each of them will make the balloon even bigger until it explodes.