Freedom to choose your life partner!

I remember a laid back evening in Hyderabad when I brainstormed with a good friend of mine over double standards of Indian junta. Badri is a well read guy, holds a US masters degree and designs semiconductor chips for his living.

Badri had argued then that Double standards are universal, I stuck to my stand that its not. There were two categories of people I maintained, ... Ones who exhibit them, and then the rest of the crowd who don't. I thought I was right. At least till recently.

Suddenly, Double standards seem ubiquitous. The new age Indian youth defies my logic. They/we chat with friends cutting across religious and linguistic barriers, stay with them , eat with them but Naa..we won't marry them ! ! ! Never !

Young India today is becoming an interesting case in point. The post liberalization kids are smart, fun loving and go getters. But they are seriously risk averse. At least in their personal life that is. I was talking to one of my friends in office yesterday when she almost gasped at the idea of such a marriage. Blasphemy ?...ooops !
I remember my school days when one of my close friends, Roy had asked me such a question. We did have a fitting argument fight back then, when I almost heroically silenced him saying that 14 years of our education is a sheer waste of time if we still end up discriminating amongst people based on such mundane things.

But there is another angle to it now. Marriage is a sacred institution and I have always stood up to preserve its sanctity. And hence the natural hate for people who use it as an alternative to achieve a better lifestyle or growth in their career. And yes, the genPrev (previous generation comprising of our parents) have religiously ensured that it is slowly but surely reduced to a game where nothing but economics rules the roost. Had Steven Levitt been an Indian, I bet the great Indian arranged marriage would have found an illustrious place in freakonomics, if not a seperate book in itself.

Hundreds of marriages are breaking down everyday. It's not money that is lost then. It's something more human and more precious .
I am not submitting the idea that everything will be hunky – dory when you are with your chosen one, but at least you would have spun by then a thousand beautiful moments of your life together ! I may sound a bit American here, but I’ll never understand the funda behind walking away one fine morning with a girl u never knew before in your life or vice versa.

I am not equating the practice of ‘Sati’ to arranged marriages, but then when an era changed, our countrymen never realized how outdated their customs & practices are. It required an iconoclast like Raja Rammohan Roy to fight and weed it out. A nation is marching ahead with confidence today, It’s necessary that strong foundations are laid /re –laid into the society as we march ahead on them. Pillars of double standards will hold no good for anyone.

Being an avid fan of HR case studies, I have come to believe that people make the essential difference. Be it in your company, be it in your personal life.
And yes, When I love or care for a person, I just look at the person. Period.
Anything more and I think Steven Levitt can take over !