Love marriage?.........Or arranged?............

I really wanted to say that i was in a hurry.
I tried to flicker my bike's pass lamp against the heading vehicle, but the faulty lamp and malfunctioning indicators forced me to shift down the gears twice, and take a sharp right turn to the petrol pump.
I really admired the ABS of of a brand new Chevorlet Magnum, which stopped by my left side, while taking the turn, with only few inches left for a hit. I throttled my engine and dashed to the pump, without listening to what the driver had to say.  
The queue gave me enough time to think abt the quantity of petrol i should go for. But i kept on thinking and thinking that i couldn't decide whether i should buy for 50 or 30 rupees.
Purchase for 50 would give me a 40 km ride, while petrol for 30 can save me some money. I was not trying to be stingy, but was in a desperate effort to save every buck to pay my debts back. Yes, i was becoming bankrupt.
In fact, i was about to attend such two disastrous functions, and meet 4 victims, called bride and groom.

The day was tightly packed with marriages, that i had to attend 2 and dad had to attend one.
I had few jobs to get done before attending these marriages.
Even though i was in a haste while traveling, my eyes were busy, scanning the streets with curiosity. And something really caught my eyes. My bike came to a halt. There was a man, middle aged, beard, and dressed in torn clothes, working quickly, just the way i was riding my bike.
He had no broom, no brush not even a piece of cloth and was engaged in cleaning the sidewalks with his bear hands. He even cleaned the windows of an unoccupied building, very near to the road, and anyone at the very first sight would tell that he was a freak.
He cleaned the side walk in such a way that the job had to be tagged with a word- "PERFECT". He was so sincere to his work that instead of piling up the debris, he disposed them in a near by dust bin. As i started my bike and continued with the journey, i was struck with a question. Who is the real freak?..
Him, or rest of us all?....Streets around my locality are in such a pathetic condition now, and local bodies seldom find cleanliness as a necessity....

Story of first marriage function was superb. It was a love marriage, but a bit bizarre.
Bride was getting married to the same family which her sister was married to. Groom was in love with bride, from the time, his brother married the bride's sister. But the bride was in love with another guy and the romance was a perfect triangle love story.
When the bride's parents came to know about this, they stood against the bride's will and ultimately the groom found an opening. He had the laborious task of "tuning" the bride as well as her parents.
The bride's parents found it safe for their daughter to get married with him.
I remembered all these while both of them where grinning and cutting cakes. Both families had no shame, bringing out the whole story behind the marriage to public, and when a tinge of shy appeared on the bride's face, it sounded like a perfect example for irony.
I do agree with an article published in a supplementary, which states that love marriages in our country are becoming arranged love marriage, which involves a lot of planning and management.

Next marriage had no such twisting stories. It was a perfect arranged marriage. I noticed many newly married couples, attending the reception. The evening was so superb, that i had to regret for not having a partner.
Bride and groom being busy, meeting the guests, i had to turn my attention towards rest of the couples. All of them were pampering each other, even while having dinner. They seemed to forget everything around them. Ladies were engaged in laughing and giggling to their man's jokes; even though the chances for a humorous joke were very few...
I noticed a couple sitting beneath a nutmeg tree. The lady had a crying child in her hand. From such a distance, i could not hear their conversation, but their gestures clearly conveyed that a fight was going on. Finally the woman gave up and left the place.
I really wished to show this scene to all the newly married couples, or at least to the one sitting right in front of me, so that they would pause for a while, realizing the fact that life is not on a bed of roses.

I used to dream a lot about my marriage. I still have dreams. There are many faces i liked, i wished, to get married with. Each time i think about the feasibility, i drop such thoughts.
Difficulty to convince parents, no job for a secure future, and a wish to have a happy and peaceful marriage keeps me aside from developing crushes and infatuations to the so called LOVE....
May be a story like "2 states" by Chethan Bhagat will be worth reading, but not peaceful for a family like me...And the increase in arranged love marriages may be due to people thinking in a similar way.
Deep down in my heart, i believe that like every act being blessed by my parents, marriage should also be enriched with their wholehearted blessings....So most probably I would end up in an arranged marriage....
How about your's?...........