On 23/07/06, Mervyn Lobo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I amazes me that just a generation ago, most Goans > would marry only someone chosen/okayed by their > parents.
A generation ago (in the Goa of the late 'sixties), I didn't know what electricity was, we studied by candlelight, and my brother and his friends thought that the fridge (which didn't obviously work) would help to hatch if a dozen were kept in it for 21 days. They just rotted, and let out a terrible odour after exploding in the most peculiar way. We tend to look down on customs that are "not ours". Many of us may have decided on our own marriage partners, but I for one would certainly not look down on 'proposal' marriages. In one case, you fall in love first and then get married, while you do it the other way around in the other case! It's just a different way of doing things. Let's eschew the temptation to look down on a form that we might not follow. When Mervyn talks of only marring someone who was "chosen/okayed by their parents", is he being accurate? Even in a love marriage, the parental approval is one of the factors (even if not such an important factor). It might be more accurate to say that the parents initiated the process of building the matrimonial alliance (or, marriage contract, as some past governments called it). And I'm not saying these things just because I've been a part of the Goanet Cybermatrimonials column ;-) which incidentally is being prepared for its shortly-due release by Christina Pinto in Australia. FN _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
