I feel, everyone around me is either getting married or hitched or committed. I guess, this is the age as per the Indian norms, where the girl is like a ripe mango, ready to be plucked!
(Do not read it with a perverted mind because I'm pretty serious!)
Whenever my parents come back from a social gathering, they bring up this topic of marriage. Just like we have our own peer pressure, they too have this societal peer pressure on them. Since ages, this has been prevalent in India, girls have to be put in a wedlock at an early age. This is how the system works here.
When my folks see other peoples daughters getting married at 21/22... they also feel like getting their daughter married ASAP and almost all parents are like that! They are not wrong on their part.
It's like a marketing strategy. If one company reduces the price of their product, their competitors will also have to slash down the prices in order to maintain the competition and sustain their customers. Similarly, if there are a set of people ready to give their girls out for marriage at 21. why will any guys family go for a girl who's 25 or above?! So others to will have to get their daughters married at 21 or 22! You know, our society believes, 'younger the better'!!
I fail to understand why the society reckons marriage to be the solution for girls...
(Haha... Ipso facto, this was the topic of my first ever internet article!)
No matter how much I debate with my parents, my family or anyone... there are some rules, in the society, that we'll never be able to break completely. We can be amongst the exception but we cannot expect the society to transform its beliefs! They call it Indian culture but I beg to differ!
I can comprehend the rudiment on which "arranged marriages" ever came into being. I mean, it's good that parents and families, here in India, want their children (boy or girl) to have a partner, a family, a home!
But, the times have changed... It is not about imitating the western culture, it is about bringing certain necessary mutations in the primitive and orthodox school of norms and beliefs! We, the human beings are evolving with every new generation coming to life... so isn't it important for the society also to evolve and move along, with us?!
I don't mean to degrade or sabotage our great Indian culture, I do value it... but here, culture is not the subject of matter... It's the societal norms and beliefs that I am speaking of!
Arranged marriages are our culture and I respect that but the age bar for the girls is not our culture! The age criterion is an obstinate and dogmatic societal creation!
It is unjust to the girls, in a way... Maybe not all girls but to the ones like me, they are!
The funny thing is.... some portion of our generation also believes that marriage is the solution to all their problems and it's not only the girls that I mean here, even the guys believe so!
It's like...
Relationship troubles- I guess, I should get married!
Career failures- I think, marriage is the only thing left for me.
Family fights- I better get married!
*gasp*
And, I kid you not, I really do know few such people!
(Also, girls I can fathom for once, if they think like that because we've been made believe so... BUT the guys?? Now see, such guys are the official 'girl-guys'!! Haha... I am sorry, I'm not being sexist! Really!)
Well,
THEY may be right and I may be wrong here.... But then, I'm known to do things wrongly... so why should I do it right here!!! ;)