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Love or arranged marriage - the dilemma that haunts many young women today. A simple story about a young woman.
Love or arranged marriage- the dilemma that haunts many young women today. A simple story about a young woman.
Megha sipped her latte and looked out of the window. She was dreading the conversation with Baba. He had given her an ultimatum. “Megha I do not want to pressurize you but you need to understand our situation as well. We are not coercing you into marrying Aditya. We are just asking you to meet him. That too in an informal setup. You choose the place. Coffee day, a shopping mall, any restaurant of your choice or the park. We do understand times have changed and we do not expect you to say a Yes immediately. Take your time. Only when you feel comfortable we will go ahead. If there is anything that makes you feel uneasy, we will decline beta. Your happiness is what matters”
Megha was 25, a smart young girl, she worked for an IT company- loved music, bollywood movies and shopping. She liked spending time with her friends. Though she was an easy going girl, she was crystal clear about her goals in life, what she wanted to achieve professionally and her plans for marriage, the kind of man she was looking for to be her life partner.
As she was now settled in her job, her parents wanted her to get married. Nowadays most of the people ended up in love marriages. They found their own spouse and declared their intention to marry, the parents worked up the details and the wedding was fixed. In India though, there were still many who took the arranged marriage route, the spurt in online marriage portals was witness to this – that arranged marriages were not a thing of the past.
Megha had hoped she would take the love marriage path. She found it weird to meet a guy fixed up by her parents, relatives or some match making portal. Have a formal conversation with him and then say yes/no. How would she know he was the one for her? What if he was just faking it. No one would show their true colours obviously when they knew the purpose of the meeting? How difficult was it to fake it for a few times and once married the true face would be uncovered. That’s what scared her to bits, what if he was wearing a mask? Somehow she did not find the right guy in her friends circle or office colleagues, there were many friends but no one special. They continued to remain good friends, she still waited for Mr Charming , the sight of whom would make her heart skip a beat.
Of course her Baba would not wait that long, he had started looking for a suitable alliance. She kept giving excuses and tried to avoid meeting guys on one pretext or the other. 2-3 proposals had not seen the light of the day because of her refusal to meet the guys. Then came Aditya’s proposal through Baba’s cousin sister. It was a very good proposal, Tai knew the family personally and she vouched for the guy, Baba did not want to loose this proposal because of Megha’s passive behaviour, hence the need to have a firm discussion with her .
She went to her room, she needed some time to herself to sort out her thoughts.
An avid reader, a shopaholic, head over heels in love with my little bundle of joy" Angel" ,God's most precious gift bestowed upon me, not so long ago.Professionally I am a Chartered Accountant read more...
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Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Women today don’t want to be in a partnership that complicates their lives further. They need an equal partner with whom they can figure out life as a team, playing by each other’s strengths.
We all are familiar with that one annoying aunty who is more interested in our marital status than in the dessert counter at a wedding. But these aunties have somehow become obsolete now. Now they are replaced by men we have in our lives. Friends, family, and even work colleagues. It’s the men who are worried about why we are not saying yes to one among their clans. What is wrong with us? Aren’t we scared of dying alone? Like them?
A recent interaction with a guy friend of mine turned sour when he lectured me about how I would regret not getting married at the right time. He lectured that every event in our lives needs to be completed within a certain timeframe set by society else we are doomed. I wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed to realize that annoying aunties are rapidly doubling in our society. And they don’t just appear at weddings or family functions anymore. They are everywhere. They are the real pandemic.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
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