Recently I attended what is commonly called a “Great Indian Wedding.” It involved around a week of dressing up, dancing, savoring various delicacies, and sitting through loads and loads of rituals.

So in the middle of all the wedding madness, one very basic question came into my mind: Marriage is two people agreeing to be joined in the bond of matrimony for life, right? So why does this very basic process have to be elongated to over a week of celebrating? Taking a week for what can be done in a few hours doesn’t make sense. I didn’t get much time to ponder this question, as I got sucked back into a blur of smiles, laughter, and occasional tears.

That night the question popped back into my mind. But this time around, I found an answer: Weddings aren’t just for the two people getting married. They are opportunities for the entire community to come together, relax, rejoice, and take pride in someone else’s joy. They are times when everybody laughs, loves, and lives.

Just then, I realised that some complexity isn't so bad. Before this, I had always loved simple things and always ended up getting frustrated at the sight of complications. But life wouldn’t be as we know it without some complexity. It wouldn’t have the same thrill without complex problems to solve, it wouldn’t give the same joy of getting past a particularly complex obstacle. Time and again, we find it is important to make our lives slightly more complex, just so that we can experience the joy in the simplicity of complexity.