Disclaimer : This post is old news, and I should have posted it 2 months back. Let me apologize for my procrastination.
Let me quote one of the most sought after new age Indian authors of the current generation...
Love marriages around the world are simple:
Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy.
They get married.
In India, there are a few more steps:
Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy.
Girl's family has to love boy. Boy's family has to love girl.
Girl's Family has to love Boy's Family. Boy's family has to love girl's family.
Girl and Boy still love each other. They get married.
And now let me add to this a little more for the coveted Sania mirza-Shoiab Malik love story.
The Girl’s country has to love boy. Boy’s country has to love girl.
Girl and Boy still love each other. They get married.
Sania Mirza has always been a media favourite in India. She has made headlines for reasons in and beyond her control, be it because the Islam extremists decided to voice out loud that they thought her skirt hemline was too short for a modest Muslim girl, or her link up with a special bollywood star who was famous for being dumped at that time. But now she is in news for a reason everyone loves to hear, for love, for marriage, for a controversial marriage.
The perfect Indian marriage is one with no controversy, but the exciting and memorable one is one which has maximum controversy as it can take.
In most of the controversial Indian marriage the controversy, confusion, rejection, etc comes from within the family. The parents don’t approve of the guy/girls caste, the religions don’t agree with each other, parents choose totally poles apart partners for their kids etc, etc.
Sania has been spared that part of the great Indian dramatic wedding, but instead her anti-cupid forces are external, external from immediate family. There are two main enemies to this marriage. 1st is the ‘Other girl’ from Hyderabad, who is taken care of for now (hopefully). Let’s not talk about that part, because as far as we know that part has been taken care of and that girl will never interfere with the new brides life (or so we hope).
I would like to talk about the second enemy here, that is the ‘Other’ people who aren’t happy with the marriage. The reason they don’t agree with the marriage is the very famous ‘they aren’t a perfect match’ and this has nothing to do with personal interests, character or favourite ice screams, but more to do with nationalities, countries and borders.
Coming from a family where a few ‘not so perfect in the others eye marriages’ have taken place, i have seen how difficult the bride and the groom struggle to get the families consent, forget the society consent. Here we are talking about a whole country, a few people in the country feel that Sania’s matrimony is a national issue, and to asking Sania to get the blessings of every uncle ansd aunty in the country is ‘mission-impossible.
On a TV talk show almost 2 weeks before the marriage happened I had seen Sri Rama Sene chief Pramod Muthalik voice his opinion that he thought Sania Mirza choice of a Pakistani was an insult to all Indian Muslim boys. I really don’t know how that is relevant here, was it a competition here? In Muthalik’s view is every single adult Indian Muslim boy ranging from the tea-shop boy to the businessman who has just flown in from Switzerland after making a billion dollar deal supposed to feel like a failure in Sania’s eyes?
So finally they married after a lot of hue and cry. But is the drama over? I fail to think so. Lets wait for the next major tennis tournament to come, and hear if Sania wants to play for India. Then many self appointed tennis experts will come out to coach Sania on patriotism and betrayal.
