Arranged Marriages and Dowry - When Marriage becomes more about Money than Love
Daughters are referred to as “ paraaya dhan ” in Hindi, which translates to “someone else’s wealth”, because according to Indian culture, a girl’s parents are merely her temporary caretakers until she’s ready to be handed over to her “permanent” or “real” family - that of her in-laws. When an Indian woman is married, it’s implied that she ceases to become a member of her own family and joins her husband’s family. Traditionally, she will live in her husband’s home, with his parents, where she will cook, clean and take care of the elderly and children in the family for the rest of her life. If there is any monetary exchange between the families in such a situation, anyone with half a brain would assume that it would be from the groom’s family to the bride’s, for handing over the daughter they raised. But it baffles my mind that in the Indian society, it’s the other way around. In addition to a beautiful, smart, and educated woman, the groom’s family are also given an enormous amount...