Originally posted by: rutumodi915
This marrying girls/guys from India, if you are an NRI is becoming insanely crazy and affects a lot of people in the process.
IMO, people who grow up in India and people who grow up elsewhere have very different wavelengths and thinking patterns and I don't think it is an easy task spending whole life with a person like this. Of course, every marriage requires adjustments and compromises but one should at least be able to figure out how the other mind works. I hate it when parents make it a necessity for girls/guys in US and elsewhere to marry someone in India, irrespective of their choice. And then, parents in India are equally despicable who want their son/daughter married to someone in America just to get hold of the Green Card.
Here, I can think of two instances pertaining to the topic.
- One of my dad's cousins was insanely in love with America (She had never been there, she had just heard about it) and she had made it a mission to marry a guy in America no matter what. This event goes back 20+ years and hence, there were not too many Indian people out here. Of course, the family wanted someone Gujarati at least. So, she started hunting and she finally settled for a 10 years older man. This aunt of mine was really pretty and you can not say that about her husband. There was nothing special about the guy except the fact that he had moved to America 6 years before and had a Green Card. They got married and from what I know, they are happy now. 😊
- This is a recent instance of a distant relative. Parents were eager to get their daughter married. At this time, an alliance from an ABD boy came who was apparently a radiologist. The girl wasn't educated much but really beautiful. The guy did not know how to talk in any language but English and the girl was not very efficient with English. They still agreed for the marriage and got married. The guy then left for America, after filing immigration papers for her. She went to English speaking classes and tried to mould herself so that she would be comfortable when she gets there. She then went to the US of A to find out that the husband was not a doctor as expected, but a technician. He went to church every Sunday and did not agree with Hinduism at all, creating a big difference between right then. The in-laws were really nice to her and tried covering up all the lies and mistakes of their son. She still decided to fit in, and today after a couple years, they are ready for a divorce. Both the families in this case were very well-to-do and belonged to some really wealthy and well-reputed families.
After being in the States for 3-4 years, I know for fact that I would never be able to adjust with ABDs. Not that anything is wrong with them, but there are way too many dissimilarities. Most of the times the ABDs are not too willing to go to India and get married but parental pressure gets better of them and they are forced to give in ruining life of more than one person. What irks me most is that girls in India still long for an imported groom. 😡 The whole marrying for citizenship/GC sucks and I still fail to understand how people give up their whole lives just to be in a country away from their own. 😕
About one of your questions, I don't think there are that many cases of NRIs leaving the brides behind. Once in a blue moon that might happen but then brides/grooms run away from India also and it has nothing to do with NRIs. 😃