“Enough of my sob story,” she said after they had driven out of the campus towards the city, “What do you plan to do?”

“Meaning?”

“Doesn’t your family pressurize you to get married?”

“They have given up on me. In the four months I was in India before joining the institute, they had gone crazy. Somehow I managed to evade though.”

“Don’t you want to get married.”

He sighed, “I wished I knew.”

“And my experience can’t be helpful,” she laughed sadly.

“You already have too much burden on your shoulders. Don’t start holding yourself responsible for my actions.”

She sighed, “But you know… it’s much better for men.”
“Really?”

“Yes. If the boy wants to meet his potential wife a few times before deciding, he is independent and forward-looking. If the girl wants to do it, she is too modern, distrustful of family, shameless and even characterless. If the boy says ‘no’, the girl is not good enough for him. If the girl says ‘no’, she in increasing the trouble of her family. And in all likelihood, her ‘no’ won’t matter at all. And it’s the boys who get all the free dowry money. Worth making a bit of compromise for!” her tone became bitter.

“Thankfully the dowry system is not prevalent in my community. But…”

“You know what! If you can’t decide for yourself in next couple of years, you should go for arranged marriage. You will have the choice anyway. And the girl you choose will be lucky enough to at least have a sensitive husband.”

“I am flattered,” Subrato sounded amused at that.

“And I am being ridiculous, of course. I am too self-absorbed in my problems. Forget it. Tell me something about the artists we are going to hear today.”

“Ah! Okay. Some of them are fairly young. But others…” She listened with fascination as he talked about various artists and what their strengths and weaknesses were.

–

To be continued