SPLITSVILLA – Where Is This Nation Heading To??

Today the whole country have been ranting and whining about the latest implementation – the demonetization drive initiated by our honorable Prime Minister. While there is an uproar and fracas about this issue all over our nation something else captured my attention and left me in grave shock and unfathomable thoughts as I was flipping through the pages of my news paper – the rising cases of divorces especially amidst young and newly married couples. In the beginning it was only my portion of entertainment and gossips while skimming through the page 3 section of my daily editorial with news about some South Indian and Bollywood celebrities, eventually my fascination about this fantasy world died down to sheer confusion and disappointment as I encountered the news about the separation between some famous south Indian movie celebrities. A few months ago the paper was flooded with the news about the divorce between the Roshan couples (Hrithik and Sussanne Khan) who were married for 14 years and then later it was all about the infamous couple from the Salman Khan family (Arbaaz and Malaika Arora) who were also married for a long time.

Suddenly it dawned to me that because these people are some public figures their private life issues are being discussed blatantly by common folks like us and how their once upon a time rosy married life has come to an end disgraceful to the limelight. But the savage reality and the truth is that there has been an exponential rise in the number of divorce cases filed in India in the recent times by a lot of young and newly married couples who are no celebrities but some ordinary men and women whom we know or live around us. 

Quite recently I recollected an article published on Times of India news magazine with some staggering and mind-boggling statistical figures of the number of divorces filed primarily in the urban, suburban and cosmopolitan parts of India like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore.  Every 13 out of 1000 marriages are ending in divorce as against 1 in 1000 ten years ago. In the olden times it was believed that  breaking of marriages are more common in the western countries and India known for its heritage and cultural values are more resilient and sustain a long lasting marriages. But in the modern times there has been an unusual trend in our country with increase in divorce rates as witnessed by the family courts. It is terrible and mind harrowing to see young couples married for hardly a few months stacked in front of the family courts seeking for divorce.

These incidents hit me real hard when something like that happened to one of my good old friend. I was perplexed when I heard that they were parting ways for good because these were people very much in love and courting for years and indeed desperate to get married but within a short span of three months since their marriage they decided to part ways from each other. All my conviction and faith about the age old traditional and conventional institution of marriage began to falter a little bit. Although my earlier presumptions were that such things happens only with people who undergo an arranged marriage my belief shattered as I heard and read more stories about people who knew and loved each other for really long decided to end their marriage in a rather sour and bitter state.

What really goes wrong when a man and woman in love decide to stay together under one roof after marriage?

They cite a range of reasons for their irreconcilable differences - the waning influence of the family and joint family; unwanted and ostensible interference of the parents; the growing psychological and financial independence of women; late marriages resulting in a greater reluctance to compromise or change set ways and lifestyles. The greatest difference, however, is in the willingness to end a marriage that is not working. Why is it that the urge in ending a marriage is not displayed in trying to mend the inconsistencies in a marriage?

What happened to our parents or grandparents who had their marriages that lasted for more than 40 or 50 years together? Was that a myth? Does that mean they were 100% compatible, or never had had any arguments or differences in their opinions? The major difference was that these people had the perseverance and immense tolerance level to shove away the unwanted issues that crops up and attempts to ruin their marriage. Those days people approached courts to end their marriages in really serious issues like dowry harassment or physical violence and abuse but these days the reasons are so naive, vulnerable and at times even really lame in most cases (of course there are exceptions with issues like infidelity or lack of consummation due to some physical or psychological disorder which is purely left to the individuals to handle).

  

Well, I am no expert marriage counselor or a physiatrist but with my limited knowledge about marriage from my more than 7 years of married life with my husband (still going strong) I do comprehend the challenges and odds that a marriage poses to have a happily-ever-after story. The first phase probably close to a year or sometimes even more in a few cases of a marriage is certainly not a bed of all roses. It involves a lot of adjustments and compromises in terms of understanding each other’s daily habits, behaviour or even practices albeit they knew each other very well before marriage. Things definitely change after marriage but it is in one’s hands to shape it positively for a better future together. Every individual is different and every marriage may have different rules and priorities but to save a marriage and keep it lasting there are only 3 basic golden rules which would be understanding each other, compatibility and accepting each other as the way they are (of course with certain amount of compromises for each other because no one is perfect).

I hope the younger generation finds their soul mate in the person they marry and live their fairy tale vision for a positive society and a better tomorrow!


Statistics and data source mentioned in the above post is as read from
http://m.hindustantimes.com/sex-and-relationships/how-and-why-number-of-young-indian-couples-getting-divorced-has-risen-sharply/story-mEuaEoviW40d6slLZbGu6J.html