There is
something about weddings that I always love. Indian weddings unlike the
western wedding ranges for about a week or two. With India being called the melting
pot, There is a lot of change in customs and traditions amongst families too!
But these days with the enhancement
in technology, there have been a lot of changes in the way even common wedding
rituals are happening. So here are some contrasts in arranged marriages happening now that I would like to share with
you which does sound humorous sometimes:
1) Usually arranged marriages have a
ritual where in the boy along with his family and near and dear ones visits the
to-be-brides house. The approached wedding bride hides in the room and usually
has a glance at the family to look at the boy’s features. But these days due to
advancement in the cosmetic industry, sometimes the boy’s father looks quite
young too, with his handsome black hair confusing the girl!
2) The Bachelorette girl had to spend a
lot of time in the parlour to get dressed for the photograph that would be used
in handy to show to the grooms side. But now, thanks to the photo editors
available one can now change the brightness, colour or even the whole girl in
general! One wont be surprised to find a girl with Chinese eyes having a Bengali eye in the picture. Thank you Photoshop!
3) When my grandmother married my grandpa she had
no idea as to what he liked, where she would be living etc. But today, with a
great improvement in telecommunication, you have the boy and girl talking to
each other or chatting on social networking sites. May be that’s a nice side
about this, at least the girl can go to her husbands house with better preparation.
4) The frequent visits of the pandit
(priest) to the two houses involved has decreased due to a number of online
marriage sites which allows one to fulfill all his criterias. There are no
adjustments in their given criteria “beautiful, fair, 5:8 girl for a 6 feet
handsome and fair boy.” Thank you but no thank you if you are 5:7 and half.
Now that I think of it, my grandpa is
really blessed to be of the 70s generation or he would've had to post his
biography on shadi.com, once approved he would've had to snapchat with my grandmom , poke her on
facebook, follow her on instagram and chat with her for 24 hours on whatsapp,
skype, hangouts, wechat etc etc. until they finally get married. Ooh and yes I
forgot to mention, change his relationship status from single to married on
facebook too. He did save a lot of his time!
