Wedding season is on. And along with a chance to dress up, click selfies and feast your heartful, it brings the irritating responsibility of figuring out a gift. If it's a girl's wedding however, folks in my part of the country tend to play safe and stick to gifting a traditional money envelope. You know, the kind with a one rupee coin pasted over and currency notes to be kept inside.
Have you ever noticed these strange patterns usually gifted in the Indian wedding rituals? Always in denominations of 11, 21, 51, 101, 251, 501 etc.
I searched for a rational reason behind this fascination for +1 rupee. And I came across a lovely thought in an article on the internet. It was mentioned that during a wedding ritual, two persons join together for life emotionally, physically, as well as financially (तन-मन-धन). So everything they jointly possess becomes an even number. And the problem with an even number is- it could be split later easily and could even end up with a zero in case of our wedding gift denominations. To make it an auspicious indivisibly odd number, one rupee extra is added customarily in almost all Indian rituals, including weddings.
This explanation may be too simple, too naive, too symbolic. But it goes on to show the kind of inclusive belief system we Indians have inherited. We need more such reminders through these sweet stories of our rituals and beliefs, given the unfortunate divisive headlines we are witnessing every day today.
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