Prof. Dharam Chand Jain is a retired principal from the largest government college of Bikaner. Yet, he drives cycles, wears a very simple dress, eats simple food, cares for other living beings and talks in very subtle voice. He has spent his entire life with this philosophy and even after so many years of his retirement, he continues to propagate these principles. He represents a philosophy which is close to extinction. The philosophy of “simple living – high thinking” is at its bottom today. The society of today is a pompous society, where people are beastly showing off their wealth. People, who are otherwise finding it difficult to provide the best of education and health-care to their families – are also spending money wildly during parties and functions. This is now becoming a new fashion. I often listen to people talking about marriage functions and mentioning that it was a “Rs. ______” marriage function. What captivates some people is a “Beastly Marriage” for me and I wish that every sensible human being must oppose such gross wastage of scarce resources during functions.

There were days when people used to have only a few items in marriage functions, the function used to take place at home. The members of family used to toil together in preparation of food, serving the guests and then in ensuring that whatever is left is distributed to the neighbours and society at large. People used to stay together and enjoy company of each other during such occasions. There were many rituals, which ensured that people are able to come closer to each other. Many of those rituals have disappeared and have been replaced by the so called “modern” rituals, which are in a way degrading the society.

Visit any marriage or any function, you find massive wastage of food, resources and wealth. In some marriage functions, you will find 56 or more varieties of food items. There are umpteen number of food counters. Most of the visitors can hardly take a few bites from only a few stalls and the rest of the stalls are not even visited. The result is visible the next day when massive amount of food is thrown away. People spend more money on decoration, tent and other such flimsy arrangements than what they have spent on the education of the child. People will spend more money on fire-works (on the occasion of marriage functions) than what they spend on the healthcare of the old people in their own family. People will dance in streets and disturb the regular traffic on the roads. In the name of modernity, all types of evil practices are creeping in the society. The society will slowly depreciate and degrade itself into a pompous society, unless you take an initiative and raise your voice against it. Are you willing to shout against these evil-practices?

Fortunately, I am not the only one opposing such functions. Mr. Loon Karan Chhajed and his friends raised their voice against such evil practices. They used the banner of Jain Mahasabha and announced that no person should have large varieties of food items during functions and if the number of food items is too large, they would boycott the function (they would return back empty-stomach). It has been a powerful message and has forced people to reduce number of food items. Their initiative should be replicated in other cities and occasions also and should be used as a means to put pressure on people to conserve resources. Can you be bold enough and start similar boycotts in the interest of humanity?

Most of the functions are handled by event management companies these days and the involvement of families and friends is minimal. Most of the event management companies are also creating plans, which involve inappropriate wastage of resources. However, there are a few event management companies, which are trying to be sensitive to wastage of food and resources. Can't we support such companies?

Let us spread the message again that “marriage is a bondage of friendship” and has nothing to do with pompous display of wealth and belongings. Let us re-discover the rituals which can enable people to come closer and spend some time helping each other. Let us again enable people to physically toil together and share their happiness through mutual sharing, love, care, compassion, and not through polluting fire-works. Next time, when you observe massive waste of food and other resources, can you ask the host to dispatch some resources to calamity affected places like Nepal?
Pompous display of wealth
Heavy expenditure on decorations
Arrogant fire-works
Loud-speakers and music systems
Let’s pray them for humanity
Let’s request them to help those in need
Let’s remind them that the society is still in the grip of poverty
Let’s prick them who don’t care for resources
Boycott their functions and return empty-stomach
Raise your voice, before it’s too late
Shout to help, the future is yours