NEW DELHI: The groom wore a garland made of bank notes and received a helicopter as a gift, there were 18,000 guests — or perhaps it was 30,000 — and 1,000 workers took 40 days to prepare the venue. The exact details have been fiercely disputed, but Thursday's newspapers in New Delhi were all in agreement that this had been one very big, very fat Indian wedding. Lalit Tanwar married his bride Yogita Jaunapuria at a family farmhouse near the city in a ceremony Tuesday celebrated with 100 dishes, 12 giant TV screens to broadcast proceedings, and even a gift of $5,500 for the groom's barber. The Times of India calculated the cost of the extravaganza uniting two influential political families at one billion rupees ($22 million). The Hindustan Times reported that at a pre-wedding ceremony last week 2,000 guests were each given a silver biscuit, a safari suit and $500 in cash, while the bride's family welcomed the groom with gifts worth $5 million.
