Yes I Watched The Royal Wedding.

On Friday the 29th of April I watched the royal wedding like billions of people around the world, and I’m not apologetic about it. I’m not a misty eyed romantic who gets all choked up at weddings nor am I someone who gets caught up in the romance of a typical fairytale. But watch I did and I had 3 reasons for doing so.

My first reason has to do with my obsession with all things historic. Reading about things which happened hundreds even thousands of years ago is good but when I’m blessed to be living in an era where through the medium of TV I can witness events which will one day become part of history, I would be pretty silly to pass on such an opportunity. This habit of watching one-off events was developed in me early by my father. As a child I remember him waking me in the early hours of the morning to watch Mohammad Ali fight Foreman in Kinshasa and every subsequent fight after that. I think I realized at that time that to watch something as it happens is so much powerful than reading about it afterwards. Now when I watch any documentary about Ali’s life I don’t watch it as an observer but my memories make me a participant of that event. Needless to say whether it be opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics, or be it the fall of the Berlin wall, the collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre or the wedding of a prince, I have witnessed them all and in doing so became a participant.

The second reason this kind of an event fascinates me is its agelessness of the traditions and protocols of the British royalty – it is literally the closest you will get to seeing first hand something which could have happened a hundred years ago. The carriages, the venues, the guards etc are all reminiscent of an age gone by. I’m not a royalist but I do think there is a sense of historic continuity about any monarchy and perhaps in a world changing too rapidly (and not always for the best) it is one of the last tethers to an age of innocence.

My third reason has to do with my own life. Most people’s life has a pattern to it, they grew up, started a career, got married, raised a family etc. and most of their memories revolve around those moments and relationships. My life on the contrary has no such pattern, it is only made up of experiences and moments. Perhaps to some I seem eccentric, and some even feel that it is their duty to feel bad for me and try and convince me it is not normal to have a life like mine. But I feel blessed. My life is not an artwork in pastels, it is more like an abstract work of art with an explosion of colour on the canvass. I live from experience to experience and I collect these with passion. All that I have witnessed and experienced has made my life unique.

I came across a comment of Facebook in which somebody had said that with so much misery and so many problems around us we shouldn’t be watching the royal wedding. Come on! That’s like saying that when I have solved all the problems of this world is the day I will give myself permission to be happy or smile. If you were out saving the world in those few hours then definitely you shouldn’t have been watching and wasting your time, but if you are someone like me then chances are if you hadn’t watched you would only spend your time being depressed  and worrying about the state of affairs, and that doesn’t really help. You can be happy and enjoy yourself while still being concerned about what’s happening around you. Being miserable doesn’t make you better than the rest of us, it just means that if you can’t make yourself happy you definitely cannot bring joy to others.