«I have seen many Hollywood movie and in those movie I always use to wonder that How can you fall in love, just like that? How can you end your relationship/ marriage just because you do not like the color choice of your partner or some silly reasons like that. I always use to think that it’s not real, it’s just some stupid love story but when I actually been to the place I realized that ,.. Oh my God !!! It can be true.
In India family is the most important thing for most of us. Whatever we do we consider how they feel about it and not what I feel about it?
Sometimes I feel that I am loosing that individual inside me, because I have to think of so many things, before taking any stand. Even the most important thing of human life which is choosing your partner is very - very narrowed down in my society. I can not fall in love with somebody just like that. I have to consider first his religion, then his family and cast and his state and the language he knows and I do not know how many more things…
And it’s just not case with me… it’s all around my world, I remember when I was a child, my neighbor girl ran away to get married a guy she liked, they got married and planed to come back to the town, on the way coming back they got murdered. I do not want to tell who did it but I know …. the only reason of murdering a very pretty young married couple was that they were from different cast In the news paper we have hell lot of news about these biases…

Is it the boundaries we have made for all of us? Is it the fear of, what will the society think? Is it the culture? What is this thing call culture? Can we question it?

While I was travelling in India the first thing I was asked was always my marriage status. It is a country with many languages and traditions, with huge differences in standard of living of rich and poor. But I found the one thing that binds all of them is an idea of marriage. Parents start to save money for daughter’s wedding from the day she is born. Arranging her marriage at the right age, as per the traditions, is their parental responsibility. In the past young people were not involved in the process of selecting partner for themselves. Boys could have an opportunity to say ‘No’ to a girl who they did not like whereas girls were deprived of this privilege. In India it is not just about the union of two people but it is about the union of two families.

The social reforms in the beginning of 20th century like ban of sati, dowry, child marriage and female infanticide encouraged the freedom of women. With the rise of education and need to earn money for family the domestic role of women transformed, especially in the cities. Many young urban women with their acquired independence and social awareness are involved in their marriage process and have a say in it.

I met the young nubile women and interviewed them about the system of the arranged marriage. This generation of young educated women feel freer in their choice of marriage. I invited them to the photography studio where matrimonial photographs were taken on daily basis in the past. Sometimes the photographs were taken next to a mirror so that the prospective groom and his family could see the girl from different angles. I took the girls’ portraits in a similar way but without asking them to dress up for it. Hand-painting technique was often used to present the prospective brides in more attractive way for the groom’s family.