Who does not like a fairytale? Apparently, everyone does, irrespective of nationality, gender and age. Going by the hype and hysteria surrounding the impending British royal wedding, everyone on the planet seems to be following every detail of the wedding. So what if you don't know the bride and groom or that you haven't been invited?
Not only is there going to be minute-by-minute coverage of the wedding of Prince William and Kate (Catherine) Middleton to be held on April 29 as if Barack Obama was being sworn in for a second term, ‘news channels' (if they can be called that despite their current programming) are handing down the miniscule of details of the wedding, as if the event will redefine the history of the world.
Even if you are sitting in a remote village in India, you will know where the cake for the wedding is coming from, how much the bride's dress costs and how many people are attending the big fat British wedding. Even how formal or informal the kiss is going to be.
What is bizarre is the way channels are unearthing Indian connections to the wedding to make it appear relevant to the viewers, and more to justify their airing of the story. One channel discovered that a baker of British-Indian origin will make THE wedding cake and interviewed him for making India proud.
If you are a regular viewer of the lifestyle channels, there is no escaping the bombardment of information on the love and life of each member of the royal family — be it the 100th birthday of the Queen Mother, the 50th year of the rule of Queen Elizabeth, the marriage and consequent tumultuous relationship of Prince Charles and Diana, and her dramatic death.
You will also not miss the repeated comparisons between the two couples; of how Charles and Diana's was an arranged match — old fashioned and almost unromantic — while the younger couple's is a more contemporary love story. The filmy blue-blooded boy meets commoner-girl story with a fairytale happy ending.
To top it all, the done-to-death speculations of whether Kate will match up to Diana and evaluations of her fashion sense, her interactions with the general public, her middle-class background as opposed to the aristocratic one of Diana, all add up to the question of why this wedding is the talk of the world, while millions of other issues fail to find mention. Until this ‘event' is done, here's to the voyeurs of British aristocracy.
