Our society has evolved in more ways than we can imagine and so has the institution of marriage. Maybe we should also consider changing the vows now too? I say this after reading about one bride who called off her wedding, right before taking the vows. The deal breaker: a simple math problem of 15 + 6 that the groom couldn’t solve. His reply was 17!
My first thought was that the groom was possibly under immense pressure, but isn’t that a problem that a first-grader could solve without any trouble? While a math problem may seem like an obnoxious reason to call off a wedding, I think the larger issue is what we should consider here. It’s unfortunate that the wedding was called off on D-Day, but better late than never. This story points to the fact that women are in fact bold enough to make decisions about their future. They are not willing to enter into a life-time commitment without being sure they are making a well-informed choice. We’re glad at least some women are speaking up for their rights and are thinking rationally about what they want from their man.
For a woman, marriage means a lot of changes and she has every right to know what she is getting into. If she is not alright tying the knot with a man she doesn’t think is intelligent enough, then so be it. While most arranged marriages offer the couple some time to get to know each other and break the ice, I don’t think this girl from Rasoolabad village near Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh got a chance to know her groom better. So even though the timing of the event might have been totally wrong, the reasons to call it off are valid, I think.
In fact for parents in some Indian villages one of the main criteria for a perfect groom is a man who has a toilet at home. Now this too might seem weird to some of us, but isn’t it totally valid for parents to not want their daughters to go through the trouble of open defecation, which happens to be a major issue in most households in rural villages?
Considering that marriage especially in rural India comes with a string of conditions, I am extremely glad to see one woman stand up for her rights and inspire a whole bunch of others to take charge of their lives and make the right choices. Kudos to this brave bride!
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