Everything in between

We wish happiness for the bride, so we teach her to ignore certain aberrations. In fact we teach her to look at the said aberrations as customs, as something that is the done-thing. So please girl, don't complain and if you have a daughter, god forbid, teach her what we have taught you. God Bless! Snippets of a conversation I overheard... Reality Cast : Three Marwari girls...with very joyful expressions on their faces Topic of discussion : The picture of one of them, who is married, draped in a saree at a bridal workshop on the backpage of a city Daily. Quite a beautiful picture, I must add. Girl 1. (married) You know kya hua? Dadaji saw this pic. Kuch khas khush nahin they . Itna skin dikh raha hai na isliye. Girl 2. Kahan yar? Mujhey to normal hi laga tha. Girl 3. (Nods in the affirmative) Girl 1. (pointing at the little midriff showing courtesy the slighly bold cut of the blouse) This. Dekha? All three laughed in unison. (Smile) The laugh was very heartwarming. They...

Firstly, the wedding in the heading refers to my cousin tying the knot. It was not the totally conventional wedding with all the ritualistic strings. It was different. It was a love marriage so parents were not in agreement. Budget was kept as low as possible and the Hindu ceremony done away with. This is of course the latest fad. I dont say it's wrong (Who am I?), but sometimes the fatkabaji surrounding weddings seems a little too much. Just for the sake of argument, what if the money spent on extravagance was put aside or invested in the name of the newly-weds? Coming back to the point, my cousin went for the registration form of the wedding. Seemingly a simple thing, the formalities of this legality set my mind working. Have you ever wondered how little things go a long way to strengthen the claims of the patriarchal society? For starters, after the signing of papers, my cousin had to sign as her husband’s wife…i.e. without her “maiden” surname and with her married one! Somethin...