Marriage is Vanilla

Men would have happily remained men, but then came marriage – a social conspiracy to deprive a man of his individualistic trait.

Marriage like ice cream comes in multiple flavours. Some interesting but almost non-existent, others boring but prevalent. The reigning flavours in our nation of a billion plus burgeoning population are only two – Love or Arranged. Take your pick.

Most opt to get it arranged – those who have loved and lost, others who haven’t loved at all. They say get married first with a convented and homely, tall, fair and beautiful girl with matching horoscope, topped with a hefty dowry. Love automatically will follow. If not, lust will definitely keep the family name alive. Unbelievable as it may sound; most of such marriages have withstood the tests of time (Ignoring the occasional dowry deaths).

If you have that adventurous streak, then love with your spouse can precede the nuptial bond. Mismatched tongues, castes, horoscopes, temperaments, likes and dislikes. But somehow two individuals happen to fall in love and even contemplate marriage, fight parental opposition, societal restrictions etc. etc. And curse each other for the remainder of their wedded life.

Or there’s always the third flavour. The premarital love gets converted into marital union getting the love factor fixed through the mechanism of arrangement. Thereby making it more acceptable to all the involved parties and the conservative aunts. But such marriages do not inspire many a filmmaker. It’s ice cream without the crunchy cone.

I’ll be spoilt for choices when my mother will ask me, “Do you have someone in mind, or should we start looking for a suitable match?” But will also have to choose my flavour before the shop closes and lap it up before it melts.