Arranged Marriages- There’s hardly anything simple about it! -1

The first phase – Initial hiccups

As this is going to be one long post I have decided to break it into sub heads, the first being ‘The first phase – Initial hiccups’. For the readers benefit I shall be incorporating numeric segmentation also… Check out the first chunk

Arrange Marriage- The word itself put’s forth an image of a traditional Indian setting, boy and girl meeting to decide if they would want to spend their life together!

Not that I was any exception to the fact, however this never burdened me nor was it so complicated, or it could be that I never really understood the complexities which if was the case then was a blessing in disguise. Considering the enormous amounts of contemplation some people get into, I would have gone into bouts of depression :O

Lets start from the beginning… In a typical Indian setting a girl completes her education and is now working hard towards attaining a meaningful career. Initially subtle and then very clearly the family starts dropping hints about her getting married. There are talks about ‘how great the guy of our chachi’s acquaintance is flourishing in his business.’ Or how it is high time your father must be getting you married and retiring from his job’ Never really understood the connection of daughter’s marriage and job yet this continues for some time.

If there is no response from the girl’s end, then there are apprehensions about the daughter having an affair. The ‘mom’ asking quite straight if the girl has an affair, also if he is of some other caste/religion clears this… Needless to say the girl is shell shocked wondering how come her parents have started to come up with such innovative ideas and why can’t she think of something as radically absurd as this for her next presentation!

Once the matter is cleared and the daughter assures them that she has no ‘affairs’ happening but right now she wants to concentrate on her career, her parent’s fears are confronted. Six months go in peace and then the matter is up again. This game of life continues for some time and then during one such conversation parents seem to be getting some positive response…

By this time the daughter is sure of her career heading in the right direction and feels she is ready to move on to the next phase in life.. ‘Marriage’. The family is overjoyed and the parents get some marriage bureau forms the next day (including online portals). In the meantime other family members are summoned to make sure that not one eligible bachelor is left unchecked! The girl is overwhelmed but doesn’t say much…