JOIN USAs opposed to foreigners with western culture it is customary in India for most families to have arranged marriages for their wards. It can be discerned that generally arranged marriages by and large succeed through the passage of years whereas love marriages in many cases flounder on the rocks. However, I hold a somewhat old-fashioned perception that love marriages are superior to arranged marriages. I feel this because love marriages with all their drawbacks are filled with a spark of tremulous excitement and magic. There is something indefinable about the depth of love and its manifestations in a love marriage where one loves the person, warts and all.
Truly all the world loves a lover and love makes the world go round. Love is unconditional and incomparable. In fact, when a love marriage works, there is nothing more beautiful and exotic. Couples like Devdas and Paro, Laila and Majnu, Heer and Ranjha adorn the pages of our classics where true love surfaces and survives intransigencies. Our very own Indian versions of Romeo and Juliet could prove that love is one of the most powerful and potent forces in the world where wars have been fought, families have been torn apart or re-united and intense sacrifices have been made. Song writers and singers, like Simon and Garfunkel, the Beatles, Abba, Elvis Presley, Carpenters and the Backstreet Boys have all waxed eloquent about the manifestations, moods and colours of love. Sometimes, it is just impractical. For example, when Imran Khan married Jemima, it was thought to be the marriage of the century, yet the marriage was on the rocks.