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The alarming female-to-male ratio is plummeting and it’s not difficult to imagine that in the coming years girls would be so scarce in number that boys would agree to do anything to get married. “Aaj hamare bete ko dekhne ladki wale aa rahein hai”, the mother of the boy will declare with great anxiousness and nervousness. After the girl and her parents arrive and are made to sit comfortably, the boy would enter shyly in the room holding a tray with tea and snacks on it. “Yeh samose aur pakode hamare bete ne apne hathon se banaye hain,” the mother will announce proudly. In spite of the fact that the boy has done his M. Sc in home Science and even has a diploma in stitching, the talks will fall through as the boy cannot show sufficient bank balance. There is no way he can keep the girl happy. Rather than wait to see these kinds of situations actualise for our children, it would be better if we ended discrimination against the girl child and called for an end to female foeticide.
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One should first learn to wash utensils and clean the house properly before becoming jealous of those husbands who have perfectly cordial relations with their wives.
These are not lines out of a marriage manual but the actual rites the boys of a nomadic Madari community in Gujarat have to perform. The boys to be married have to stay at their in-laws’ house after the engagement. They have to prove that they are good at cooking, cleaning and worthy of winning over the daughter’s hand in marriage.
