A Tokyo firm rents fake family and friends for weddings, but the trend is not exactly alien to us Indians...
But if you thought these friends of convenience come cheap, sample this. For 20,000 yen (roughly Rs.10,000) one could have a ‘friend’ attend his/her wedding. Add to that 5,000 yen and you can have him perform a song or a dance sequence, while an emotional speech by such a friend could set you back by a cool 10,000 yen... In these times of recession, with requests from at least 100 such weddings, this translates to big business for Office Agents who are only too happy to oblige, and are laughing their way to the bank. However, with a manpower of 1,000 fakes available with the firm, the expenses in terms of salaries alone are perhaps not exactly dirt cheap.
But if you thought that such a trend was completely foreign to us Indians, then it would be far from facts. Says Kanisha, Delhi Wedding Planners, “Sometimes we do get requests from families asking for people to pose as relatives at weddings. In fact, in the past, there have been quite a few of such requests. It usually comes from families where there is an inter-caste marriage and many relatives don’t turn up. At such a time, the family hires people to be a part of the baaratis. We also get such requests from those who are settled abroad with their families but choose to have their weddings here in India. Since they don’t have many relatives in the country, people are hired to show a full house at such weddings.”
While, like the Japanese, the Indians value family ties more than most things, let’s just hope that the practice of using fake stand-ins in Japan (even in events like funerals) doesn’t become prevalent in our country too.
But if you thought these friends of convenience come cheap, sample this. For 20,000 yen (roughly Rs.10,000) one could have a ‘friend’ attend his/her wedding. Add to that 5,000 yen and you can have him perform a song or a dance sequence, while an emotional speech by such a friend could set you back by a cool 10,000 yen... In these times of recession, with requests from at least 100 such weddings, this translates to big business for Office Agents who are only too happy to oblige, and are laughing their way to the bank. However, with a manpower of 1,000 fakes available with the firm, the expenses in terms of salaries alone are perhaps not exactly dirt cheap.
But if you thought that such a trend was completely foreign to us Indians, then it would be far from facts. Says Kanisha, Delhi Wedding Planners, “Sometimes we do get requests from families asking for people to pose as relatives at weddings. In fact, in the past, there have been quite a few of such requests. It usually comes from families where there is an inter-caste marriage and many relatives don’t turn up. At such a time, the family hires people to be a part of the baaratis. We also get such requests from those who are settled abroad with their families but choose to have their weddings here in India. Since they don’t have many relatives in the country, people are hired to show a full house at such weddings.”
While, like the Japanese, the Indians value family ties more than most things, let’s just hope that the practice of using fake stand-ins in Japan (even in events like funerals) doesn’t become prevalent in our country too.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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