So far I believed Balika Vadhu was only on TV. Little girls getting married off at a young age was something of the past or in remotest of villages. Then I learn't about two young girls in my neighborhood who have been "engaged to be married" since the ages of 7!
Thankfully, the girls' in laws have "allowed" them to study. Needless to say, they are not allowed to meet their prospective spouses. This really got me thinking. I mean when you are in school and all young, it may sound like fun, to be betrothed. MAY sound to some, I repeat. But what happens when its actually time to get married?
Don't we all have some ideas, some concept or some dreams about the kind of spouse we want to have? What if this person does not meet those criteria. And this is for both the groom and the bride... Do you still get married? Do you live with someone whom you cannot like, quietly- forced to like and even love them! What if the boy dies before the marriage? Does the girl become a "widow" without the marriage?
Then I laugh, when I think my married life must be such a culture shock to them, like theirs is to mine!
Married yet studying....
Married long enough to have 2 kids, yet happily studying...
Husband who doesn't mind living at his sasural once in a while...
hehe....Loved the last part...Husband who doesn't mind living in a sasural :D I wish mine would agree!
ReplyDeleteI was planning to write something similar as I considered myself 'balika vadhu' until now. Nope, did not get married at 7 but I was 18 when I got married. And now I am 23. But this is actually shocking!
18! OMG...I thought I was too young to marry at 23.....
DeleteThey not yet married....but engaged at 7....too much na!!
haha!! Well written ... but yeah, that is the sad truth of rural India!
ReplyDeleteThis is in Mumbai!! Its sad even in rural India too....
DeleteAtleast the in laws let the girls to study.. That part I'm hearing for the first time.
ReplyDeleteyea thats the bright side, yes.....
DeleteWhy do you think they call marriage an institution? So you can study... :P
ReplyDeleteha ha...
DeleteIt may sound funny (or I may say odd) but most of these outdated ideas of child marriage/want boy child etc is encouraged/demanded by the lady of the house who at one point of time must have suffered for the same reasons
ReplyDeleteThats quite similar to "why people rag".. because their seniors ragged them too.. Sadists Sadists :((
Deleteyes it happens in interior parts of south india.. even at the earliest age, say 6 or 7 .. elders will fix the who should marry whom ..
ReplyDeletenever seen sucha young bride!! but I have a friend who got married after class X, and is now not-so-happily married...i feel so very sorry for her...she didnt complete her education, doesn't have a proper job, has not started a family as yet, and is married for almost 8-9 years now....
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Please edit that Varsha.. Husband who doesn't mind living at his sasural once in a while
ReplyDeleteMake that.. Husband who loves getting pampered at Sasural for those whiles other than the once in a whiles :).... smiles smiles :)