Arranged marriage. Now, what’s that?
Team L&M
For those of you who travelled aboard Indian Railways during the 80s and the early 90s would surely remember the messages on the outer walls of houses running parallel to the railway tracks. The ones that seemingly never-ended and stated: Rishte hi rishte mil toh lein, ** Regarpura… Perhaps the most innovative way of advertising at minimal cost. But we are not here to discuss advertising mantras. We need to talk about the subject that the advertising guru painted on the walls – proposals for marriage. And arranged ones at that.
Debutant author Vineet Gambhir has intelligently ‘chronic’led his personal experiences in the form of a book, ‘Chronic’les of the Arranged Boy. It is about experiences he had had during some of his ‘many’ arranged marriage meetings with the brides-to-be. A digital marketer with Google, Gambhir puts forth an ever pertinent question – Do arranged marriages work? And if one were to add, in times when most millennials believe in the concept of ‘live-in’ relationships and shun the concept of arranged marriages.
Most prospective grooms in our country, especially ones who would have jumped onto the arranged marriage bandwagon, would have felt what the protagonist Abhay Mathur experiences during the course of the book. As and when they make a brief appearance in his life, each of the characters – from the Kapoors to the Khannas and the high school teacher in a reputed Delhi school – Kriti Tandon to the ‘illuminated one’ – Radha in the book are very relatable, very real. You feel having met most of them at some point in time. It also goes on to show the strong observation powers of the author. Gambhir peppers most of the characters with a fun element which most likely will bring a smile on your face.
Gambhir winds up this nine chapter “Not A Work Of Fiction” book with the chapter — Checking off the Checklist — wherein he shortlists steps to help find the right match. Kudos Vineet Gambhir for churning out this wonderful piece of creative work.
