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With the wedding season going on in full swing, actor Asha Parekh candidly spoke about her decision to stay unmarried. That is why she is an inspiration!
In this age of feminism, film actress, director and producer Asha Parekh spoke about her decision of staying single in an interview with Verve. Born in the era where marriage was the ultimate goal for a woman, it is bold, and frankly, quite unexpected, coming from a 77-year-old woman.
By choosing to remain unmarried, Asha Parekh doesn’t say she is against romantic relationships. In her book, The Hit Girl, she reminisces about her former co-stars. She also candidly confessed her soft spot for Nasir Hussain, the only man she loved.
However, loving him didn’t turn into attaining him being the only objective of her life. Instead, when asked why she never got together with filmmaker Nasir Hussain, she said, “I know I admitted to being in love with Nasir Hussain in The Hit Girl. But as much as I loved him, I could never consider breaking up his family and traumatising his children. It was far simpler and satisfying to be on my own. Make no mistake, it wasn’t like I didn’t want to get married.”
Taking examples from Rajesh Khanna and Vinod Khanna getting chided by their girlfriends for going out at night instead of being in bed, Parekh says she doesn’t want to get married as “[she] would’ve never been able to take someone dictating terms to [her] — [she] was just not cut out for it.”
Don’t the liberating words of the Love in Tokyo actress make you question the necessity of marriage? Yes, you, obviously, might ask ‘How will I look after myself in utter solitude in old age?’
However, making compromises and depending on someone you don’t vibe with, for the rest of your life, won’t make you happy, either. “Time and circumstances are everything. You can’t stop what is meant to happen, and you can’t force what isn’t fated to occur.”
Surprisingly even for Gen Z, both, men and women are put under pressure to get married even before reaching 25. Marriage has been an integral part of our culture and tradition.
From social and financial security to societal pressures, family expectations and even love, marriages are a part of the culture. But, marriage should have our consent, it should be our choice.
We need a world where choosing to get married doesn’t make a woman less independent. Or remaining single making her being judged as the crazy spinster aunty with a house full of cats (I mean, what is wrong with being a cat-lady?)
Asha Parekh is brave enough to stick to her ground and abide by her decision, even though her mother did make an effort to marry her off. But here she is: successful, beautiful and happy!
Getting married should be a choice, not a necessity to save yourself from a lifetime of being on your own. Feminism is all about the choices we make, not the roles that we are forced into.
An English literature student with a love for reading and writing, and who chills tucked
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