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Akshata,
is currently employed with Tendris, a Dutch cleantech
Incubator Fund, as its marketing director. Said to be
one of Infosys'' largest individual shareholders her 1.4
per cent stake is valued at around Rs 1,600 crore.
Rishi Sunak, a British citizen of Indian
origin, is a Fulbright
scholar who studied at Oxford and Stanford. He is a
partner at the UK-based charitable hedge fund TCI, The
Children’s Investment fund.
Narayana Murthy, the prominent Bangalore-based industrialist
hosted a simple no tamasha, traditional wedding for
his daughter Akshata on August 30th in Bangalore. We
wonder what would happen when another Bangalore-based
industrialist (popularly known as the “king of good
times”) hosts his child’s wedding—would Bangalore stink
design labels, glitter, glamour and opulence or would
the wedding be held at a luxury resort in an oh so exotic
destination- which only a handful of Indians have been
privileged to access!
Akshata's wedding reflected the mindset,
values and lifestyle of her parents. Though everyone
has heard about the Murthy’s simple lifestyle, they
had presumed the most awaited event in their life would
be a grand celebration. And the simple, traditional
wedding surprised all; while many were touched by the
low key festivities where guests were paid personal
attention to—others were amazed as to how one of India’s
richest families could host such a no-fuss traditional
affair.
It was clear that the bride, groom and Sudha and Narayana
Murthy are preoccupied with so many other career, social
and
development issues—and stuff like large celebrations,
multi-cuisines, wedding decor formats, lehenga colors
and embellishments occupy less interest or importance
in their lives— we’re quite sure Sudha Murthy didn’t
sweat the small stuff—worrying about all the wedding
details or soaking in the pleasure of planning each
and every aspect of function and more functions—she
could have hired the country’s best wedding planners
and done more than one rehearsal of the most awaited
day in her life; yet she possibly chose not to work
too hard on all this—and focus her interest and energies
on the traditions and rituals of her community wedding
instead.
What
is also interesting is the way the bride and her mother
dressed- no dripping diamonds, heavily embroidered wear
or gaudy accessories. Both the bride and mother wore
subtle make-up, a natural look hairstyle and what by
Indian wedding standards could be considered minimal
and basic jewellery.
Weddings are an obsession in India and
every prominent Indian’s wedding is talked about for
days, weeks or months— usually for the opulence with
which it was held or very rarely (or almost never) for
the way the moneyed family hosted a simple yet memorable
event. Regardless of the scale every celebrity wedding
leaves a huge impression on people’s mind— and they
try to get information and more information on what
the celebs wore, the celebration venue or the decorator
and caterer. And they aspire that these brands or wedding
vendors will be an element of their wedding too!

Though the Murthy wedding has been simple,
they have made select
brands even more popular— WeddingSutra brings you a
list of select
people, places and brands which the Murthy family chose—we’d
have loved to know more about the wedding and share
the same with WeddingSutra readers- but as you’d know,
the wedding was a very low-key affair and so few people
actually know about the wedding picks and choices. And
much as we’re dying to learn this, we can’t tell you
where Akshata picked the pretty pink saree that she
wore for the pre-wedding puja or the designer who designed
the beautiful orange lehenga choli for the evening reception.
The
venue of the pre-wedding puja- Chamaraja Kalyana Mantapa,
Jayanagar, Bangalore The wedding reception venue- The
Ballroom, Leela Palace Hotel, Old Airport Road, Bangalore
Wedding
food- Adiga Caterers well-known for Kannadiga dishes.
The
‘satvik’ (no onion and garlic) meal was a traditional
Mysore Brahmin
fare (Narayana Murthy is from Mysore) with the Dharwad
touch (Sudha Murthy’s home town). The highlight of the
menu was mandige - a sweet from Hubli. The food was
served in plain biodegrable plantain leaves.
Wedding guests- Azim Premji, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Anil
Kumble, Nandan M Nilekani, Captain G.R. Gopinath, Prakash
Padukone, Syed Kirmani, Girish Karnad.
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