I was very surprised to read a news article about the marriage of Mahatma Gandhi’s 45-year-old great-granddaughter, Sonali Kulkarni, the President & CEO of Fanuc India Pvt Ltd., with the 47-year-old chairman of Microsoft Corporation India, Ravi Venkatesan. Their love story began a decade ago but they could not marry as his parents were against him marrying outside the community. He is a Tamil Brahmin. So, Ravi and Sonali waited – for a decade.
I was baffled by the story. What made the man and woman wait for the parents' approval? If they had been very young and financially dependent, then one could understand their wait. But in the given situation, no logic or reasoning explains their decision, leave alone the stance of Ravi's parents. I am shocked that caste system still wields such power over the educated affluent class. More shocking is that Indian children still think that it is their duty to gratify all the whims and fancies of their parents. What good is education if you cannot even fight against the crap happening at home?
The fact that she was the great-granddaughter of the father of the nation seemed to have had no impact on the oh-so-brahmin parents.
I was baffled by the story. What made the man and woman wait for the parents' approval? If they had been very young and financially dependent, then one could understand their wait. But in the given situation, no logic or reasoning explains their decision, leave alone the stance of Ravi's parents. I am shocked that caste system still wields such power over the educated affluent class. More shocking is that Indian children still think that it is their duty to gratify all the whims and fancies of their parents. What good is education if you cannot even fight against the crap happening at home?
The fact that she was the great-granddaughter of the father of the nation seemed to have had no impact on the oh-so-brahmin parents.
Ravi and sonali were not selfish and self obssessed.. had they been self centered and thought only about their happiness , their life , their dreams then they would have for sure married long back.But they respected their parents views and waited so long ...so whats wrong in that....should we listen to our parents only till the time we are dependent on them ? if yes then that is heights of selfishness... already todays generation is at par or much ahead with the west when it comes to treating their parents.... our indian values are all gone in the drains .. so if such ex. exists its worth praising and not critisizing...
ReplyDeleteA good jounalist is one who takes comments and critisism both with open arms and from everyone .. be it be a friend or a foe....and i guess you accept comments only from friens and not foes.. so hereby i will not comment on anything anymore as i dont want my comments to be deleted.
ReplyDeleteOur parents are much much experienced then us and so if they advice us on something they have to have a logic behind it... marrying somebody outside caste is not easy..it needs lot of compromises and adjustments,accepting all together a new set of beliefs n customs which is not easy and probably a young couple blindfolded with love may not see that but the parents can anticipate the outcome. And when the euphoria gets over they have to take lot of efforts to make that relationship work. And parents can ever think bad for their children and can they be self-centererd ? i doubt.....
ReplyDeleteAnd I would prefer illiteracy over that education which teaches you to go against your parents and which teaches you to seek happiness at the cost of hurting them in their old age. Education and a good upbringing makes you more refined,polished,tolerant and teaches you to respect elders and not to rebel as the duo did .Hates off to them.
What BS Nisha Rajan? You are too stupid, and un-necessarily excessively emotive. They were not teenagers, or even in their 20s when they fell in love.
DeleteThey were 35 and 37, by which time they ought to be bonafide adults, and are NOT acting based on impulses alone. They have lived half their lives, and must know what they want!
Age doesn't automatically bring maturity, as is evident with the tamil brahmin parents here.
Define respect! If the parents are abysmally immature, and don't understand the mind-set of their child, who grew up in a different time and under different circumstances, and would rather rub off their useless superiority complex onto the child's future, then get this into YOUR THICK SKULL - SUCH PARENTS DESERVE NO RESPECT, PERIOD!
How many people that are married into same caste families are not suffering, or are not divorced? Too many! Caste is NOT the only think that keeps 2 people together. Per your logic, even abusive parents (sexually/physically/emotionally) ought to be respected, because they are elders. Stupid Bimbo.
And why is it that South Indian Brahmins are so un-necessarily ritualistic and moronic???
DeleteThey are a bunch of condescending, patronizing morons. Most of them to this day are, i.e the Tamil, Telugu, Malayali and Kannada Brahmins. I'd much rather prefer a north indian brahmin to a south indian one.
I think its gross hypocrisy, waiting for parents approval indeed, utter rubbish! I am sure they had entirely different reasons of not getting married, thay just wanted to create publicity by saying they wanted to wait for their parents'nod. In any case in this day and age of living together i am sure parents will never kbow what their kids are doing and thay can easily pull the wool over everyone's eyes by saying they respect elders!! Big big facade!Utter crap..
ReplyDeleteWell...I was one of the people Ravi met as a prospective bride in a Delhi hotel.
ReplyDeleteThat time Ravi mentioned his stint with Tata Cummins. His parents were somewhat keen on the alliance but not him. he told me that he was sociable and had a few "intimate" friends in the US. I was a professional and in my mid 20s and a Tamil Brahmin. he talked at length about his innings at tata Cummins and how govt red tape in Bihar was botching his efforts with the company. In that 20 minute conversation with him at the hotel lounge... I knew this person had other things in his mind.... least of all was getting married. it may be highly likely he was already in a relationship with his current wife. So as they say.... alls well that ends well... he seems happily married now... I guess and I am too and settled in the US....If he reads this post... he may guess who I probably am....His parents may too....
Well...I was one of the people Ravi met as a prospective bride in a Delhi hotel.
ReplyDeleteThat time Ravi mentioned his stint with Tata Cummins. His parents were somewhat keen on the alliance but not him. he told me that he was sociable and had a few "intimate" friends in the US. I was a professional and in my mid 20s and a Tamil Brahmin. he talked at length about his innings at tata Cummins and how govt red tape in Bihar was botching his efforts with the company. In that 20 minute conversation with him at the hotel lounge... I knew this person had other things in his mind.... least of all was getting married. it may be highly likely he was already in a relationship with his current wife. So as they say.... alls well that ends well... he seems happily married now... I guess and I am too and settled in the US....If he reads this post... he may guess who I probably am....His parents may too....