New-Age Weddings And Parallel Narratives To It

New-age weddings and parallel narratives to it.

- Soma Shukla

August in India has forever been related to Freedom and Independence for more than surrounding 70 years. The colours us, flags are being sold all over and indeed restaurants are setting up buffets in the flag's colours. It has become an all-in-all day of festivity.

We should make a move to examine how love and freedom work. The world is full of debates and parallel narratives, the same happens with Indian marriages too. Marriages are specifically, an agreement with numerous expressed and unexpressed contractual terms and conditions. Marriage is traditionally seen as a means of getting 'trapped', with numerous complaints about the loss of freedom. But with changing times, and parents turning more accepting of love marriages, there's a section of youths for whom getting married is a form of escape.

Marriage A Safe Escape?

Many, especially those in their early 20s, are prepared to get hitched youthful so that they can be independent to live their lives as they wish-away from their parents wellmeaning, but misplaced protective, and occasionally suffocating, grasp.

"I just wanted to get out of my house," says Sayantani, who married her beau at the age of 24. She has been wedded for three years now and is very happy, as she now has a lot more independence. "I am from a conservative family, but my friends were not, so, my social life was zero. My parents wouldn't like my friends coming over and I could not do a lot of things that I wanted to. So, when I met my hubby, it was like a substantial boost of freedom for me. A lot of people asked me why I got married at such a young age, but I was waiting to get wedded," she says, adding that moving out of her parental home wasn't an option before she got married. Now, she goes on long bike rides, and parties and has drinking sessions at home with her hubby and friends, things that she could not do before.