Balcony chillies this year are doing well, but the real heat is in these marriage cost discussions, yella ok. My neighbour spent two lakh on a one-day hall for his daughter’s wedding, and now he’s eating rice and salt for six months — that money could have been her whole first year of college fees. I don’t say no to tradition, but we need to ask: who decided the wedding must cost more than a house deposit? Rules of fairness say if the state helped with basic life costs, maybe people could choose marrying, not marrying, or having a child without counting every rupee for twenty years. From my balcony, I see that inequality shapes every “choice” we talk about.