Marriage in India

I couldn't remember if I had blogged about marriages in India so if I have forgive me...

This morning our housekeeper told me that her 18 yr old daughter will be meeting her future husband and his family tomorrow for the first time. First of all I didn't know that her daughter would be marrying soon (I asked her about a month ago and she said "Oh no, Ramya too young"), and two, I tried to imagine what it would be like to be meeting my future mate for the first time--knowing I HAD TO MARRY HIM no matter what! This is a concept I am still trying to wrap my little pea brain around--arranged marriage. If i had to guess I would say that about 95% of Indians have arranged marriages, regardless of religion. I have met only one couple who did not have an arranged marriage and the rest were "arranged" even if the couple knew each other and were friends. I know I posted previously that in the rural areas it is common to marry cousins and relatives.

What would it be like to one day not know your mate and the next day meet this person that you are going to marry whether you are attracted to them or not? I think statistics show that arranged marriages are much more successful than choose-your-mate ones. Brian and I really admire this type of marriage (although I haven't yet come to the point in my mind to agreeing to do if I had to:). The mindset is totally different--you know going into it that you will grow to love this person no matter how they look or their shortcomings and you trust your family to choose the right person for you. In the west we have so many expectations and standards going into marriage that we suddenly become disillusioned when the other person falls short of that perfect person we dated/courted. Ok, i won't go into all that, but I'm just amazed by this tradition and I'm so curious about it...i ask almost everyone I know about their arranged marriage story:)