Example Sahara India supremo saharasri Subrata Roy celebrated his grand daughter roshna`s rice eating ceremony at Delhi`s Five Star Hotel-Ashok on Wednesday, the 20th March 2013. According to Deccan Chronicle newspaper dated 24th March 2013, which published a full page advertisement, it was truly evening to remember. The ad. further reads:
On a day of political turbulence with DMK Ministers resigning and with hectic political manoeuverings taking place, it was quite remarkable that the biggest names from the world of politics showed-up to shower their blessings on Baby roshnA. Among luminaries who attended the truly spectacular function included an Ex-President, several Governors and Chief Ministers, the Lok Sabha Speaker, many Central Ministers, over 175 MPs, and more than 120 Grade-A-IAS, IPS and IRS Officers. Also attending the function were, several leading lights from cinema, sports and the corporate world.
The ceremony caught the eye of the Indian media as well and with good reason for it is indeed unprecedented for an infant to receive blessings and best wishes from so many noted politicos, office bearers, sports persons, industrialists, cine stars and other eminent people at a social and family event. The little grand daughter of Saharasri was also blessed by all the members of Sahara India pariwar on this happy occasion. The evening`s festivities were enhanced by a cultural programme by noted singers Shri Sonu Nigam , Ms. Mayuri and Ms. Sapna Mukherjee.
The ad. listed the WHO IS WHO OF INDIA who ATTENDED GLITTERING SAHARA FUNCTION, with photos. Some photos:
Former President pratibhA pATil
Janata DAl S President SArad yAdav
cricketers dhOni, surEsh rainA, and ravIndra jaDEja
lOk sabhA speaker meirA kumAr
lOk sabha Opposition Leader: sushma swarAj
samAjvAdi party leader mulAyam singh yAdav
rAjya sabha Opposition Leader: aruN Jaitley
SrIprakAsh jaiswAl
Sachin TenDulkar
Governor of tripura dEvAnand konwar
lAlu prasAd yAdav, former Railway Minister
yOgi AdityanAth
Congress leader digvijay singh
madhya pradEsh Chief Minister ShivrAj singh ChauhAn
veteran Congress leader karaN singh
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila dIkshit
cricketer yuvrAj singh
cricketer pragyAn Ojha
Dr. vijay mAllya
cricketer R. aSvin
Australian cricketers Michael Clarke and Steve Smith
cricketer Shikhar dhAwan
vijay goel
former BJP President nitin gaDkAri
Union Minister ajay mAken
Union Minister praful pATel
Union Minister of State for Tourism, Shri chiranjeevi
anUrAdha prasAd and rAjeev Shukla
farookh abdullah
ravi shankar prasAd
former chattisgadh CM, ajit jOgi
N.P. rUDy, r.p. rUDy, and arjun munDa
former Railway Minister dinEsh trivEdi
former Union Minister jagdIsh TyTler
AICC General Secretary Oscar FernAndes
film luminaries boneY kapoor and SrIdEvi
film luminaries abhishEk bachchan and jaya bachchan
film-luminary rAj babbar
sports star rAjwardhan singh rAThoD
former railway minister C.K. Jaffer sharief
yOga guru bAbA rAmdev
rajat Sharma
subOdh kAnt
viSva hindU parishad vinay katiyAr
Member of Parliament maNEkA gAndhi
political luminary tAriq anwAr
kamla advAni and pratibha advAni (presumably the family of BJP top leader and former Deputy P.M. : L.K. advAni)
political luminary rashId alvi
retired Supreme Court Justice and present National Press Commission, chairman Justice mArkanDeya kaTju
former lAw Minister and BJP luminary rAm jethmalAni
prosEnjit
arindham chaudhuri
BJP luminary umA bhArti
Syed Ahmed bukhAri
film luminary hrithik rOshan
Indian Hockey Team
Indian Women`s Hockey Team
c.p. Thakur
sanjay khAn
film star MP hEma mAlini and her kins
dia mIrza
film star vivEk obEroi
telugu language film star nAgArjuna
film star anil kapoor --end of news part in this blog post--.
this blogger`s observations I regret if there are any factual or typing errors in the above news.
I am not sure elsewhere, in India, rice-eating ceremony is a minor ceremony, when compared to major ceremonies like weddings, house-warmings, and funerals. People normally celebrate it on a very small scale in home. Only close relatives will be present in closed living rooms.
Practice in Andhra PradEsh: Alternative choices like book-pen, money-gold, musical-toys etc. are placed before the toddling child, at a reasonable toddling distance. The baby is then encouraged to toddle towards the alternatives and touch one of them. If the baby touches a book or pen, a presumption is made that the child will become an educator-or-an-author i.e. something to do with books and pens (now we have to place some laptop/tablet as an alterntive). If the toddler chooses money-gold, a prediction is made that the child will become a business person when it grows up. If the toddler touches a musical instrument, a presumption is made that the child will become a singer/dancer.
This is a beautiful but a very small ceremony full of optimism and it can give immense joy to parents, grand-parents, aunts and uncles, cousins, probably some nearby neighbors.
Outsiders are invited rarely and they seldom attend even if invited.
Obviously, with this type of the insignificance of the ceremony for the purpose of a lavish show, we rarely see news reports in media, about some celebrity performing the rice eating ceremony of his-her children or grand children.
It is now not clear, why such a highly-lavish function has been organised by sahAra with one former President and Speaker of Parliament in towline? It must have caught some millions to those who invited and some hundreds of thousands to those who were invited. Every meal in hOTel Ashok, New Delhi might have cost a thousand bucks.
Invitees from mumbai might have arrived on chartered aircraft and helicopters.
kArl mArx said that all human relationships are monetary . What is the bond between the blessing souls and the blessed soul? Definitely not money. The real bond, we have to presume, must therefore be, between the Head of the sahAra and the invitees. What could have been that pecuniary bonding (or even bondage) between the sahAra and the invitees?
In case of sports persons, we can presume a relationship of sahAra being sponsor. Particularly for the Indian Hockey Teams.
What is important in this context is: SEBI and sahAra are litigating. Supreme Court is insisting on refund of thousands of crores of rupees (billions of Rupees) to saharA`s customers, while sahAra s dilly-dallying.
If Mr. Subrata Roy is arrested on Supreme Court orders, will all the above people again rush to the prison where he is placed for consoling him? Will they bring pressure on the Government of India to arrange for his release?
So this rice-eating-ceremony of a grand-child performed by Mr. subrata roy, can we consider it as a show-of-strength-ceremony?
We have to wait and see, how many more aircraft and choppers are to be chartered. How many luxury cars need to make hundreds of trips to jails?
