Arranged Marriage

Just got back from India and heard a colleague of mine, N, is finally getting married. Of course I immediately assumed that it would be with his girlfriend which he had told me about. However to my surprise it is not! It seems his family had found someone for him and likewise the family of the girl to have them marry each other!

I asked him, how does this work, and he said that, the whole thing basically was arranged by both their parents and he seems to be happy and accepting to the choice of his parents and seemingly she is too. Right now according to him he and her are being "friends" and getting to know each other till their big day in December. That is when they will be officially married after a 7 day wedding ritual/banquet.

Later in the day, I went around the office and found out almost the whole lot of them had their marriages arranged. One of them said it was for the better, because at that time, he was working so hard, he hardly had the time to go out and find someone to settle in a "Love" marriage (as they put it).

When his parents introduced the girl to him, his first impresion was that she is a very down to earth lady and very well educated. And till now, he said, as each day that passes, he is growing to love his wife more and more. They both have a son who is 5.

Well as for N, he seems happy and he offered me the statistic that, it seems the rate of divorce in a "Love" marriage in India is higher than that of an arranged marriage. And arranged marriage is indeed very common in India.

Well, whatever the case may be, I wish him and his future bride all the best and may they be happy always!