The other day I was sitting with one of my friends and we were just talking about random stuff when I was drawn to a rather normal detail – he is a Bengali, his wife is a Sindhi. It’s nothing out of the blue, I mean people are getting married as per their choice all over the place. But something in this detail stuck to me!

Well, to put things straight, even I have had a love marriage (a rather long labour of love for 5 years before we tied the knot :)). I am a Brahmin from MP and my wife a Marwari from Jharkhand. And we have instances in our family of inter-religion marriages as well, so it’s nothing awkward for me that two people of different castes/religions get married. What really stuck me was the amalgamation of cultures that’s happening across the board within our generation.

In older times, when arranged marriages used to be the norm, most of the alliances were in same religion/caste and to a great extent, even region. It was likeness that paved the way for a successful marriage! Remember, old aunties saying “she is of the same caste, will be able to adjust easily”…

But come our generation, the concept of arranged marriages has been overtaken by people marrying each other based on their choices. And that’s quite a profound thing that’s happening right now in India. As more and more of us get married into different castes/religions/cultures, I believe we are becoming more tolerant of the way others in the society live. And that’s great because it, in my opinion, is bringing the people of India closer.

Imagine, after a few years when Muslims will be marrying Hindus openly without any drama, Sikhs will be getting hitched to Christians and Rajputs to South Indian Brahmins, and so on. The simple idea of marrying based on your choice will create a strong harmony amongst religions, societies and castes that years of efforts couldn’t do! It’s already started, and it’s only going to become better with age! 🙂

Hopefully then films like 2 States would no longer be novelty amongst most people in the hinterland, it will be a commonplace occurrence surrounding one of the most beautiful institutions that India has taught the world how to be successful in. And it will be an India not only tolerant of its diversities but proud of the vastness of its amalgamated culture!!!