The New Age Woman...

A wedding over the weekend...
Made me realize that it is time I shelved old images...old stereotypes..
Especially of women!

The bride was all of 26...
In the throes of completing her PhD...
From a premier US University...

In that gathering of Chettiars..
She fitted in very well...
Smiling.....friendly...
She could have been my daughter...
Which to me would be the height of 'normal', 'ordinary' or what you will!!!

Yet she had shared the same home with the groom ...
For the last three years or so...
In distant America!!!

I am not commenting on the rightness or wrongness of the action..
It is their own business..as I would be reminded by those round me...
And thankfully so!!!

In my youth...
Those who opted for such 'live-in' relationships...
Adhered to a certain image...
Usually they were very Westernized...
Or very 'bold'....
The girl next door....
Very rarely ventured forth to break societal codes of premarital behavior....
For fear of being jilted etc...if nothing else...
Not so any more...

In this case...
Blessing came from Thiruvannamalai to the beating of drums...
So too from the Shirdhi Sai Baba Temple in Mylapore...
And the couple became man and wife...
Thankfully..it had ended well for these two!!!