Showing posts with label Marriage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marriage. Show all posts

Monday, February 24, 2014

Marriage - an encounter... contd...

Yeah… back to my encounter on marriage…
The changes after marriage are huge, starting from change of place to living…

Am still in my initial months of marriage, that’s how I tell myself to still feel like a new bride…
It is a great feeling. The days after marriage are a little embarrassing initially with you know what J
As time passes, I got used to it and so I guess the people around too.

Am a feminist and I respect every woman for the changes she goes through, how she accustoms to it.
My mother, mother in law, grandmother, aunt, sisters, friends….
After marriage, the respect has multiplied by bounds! I can relate how they would have handled it and managed.
My friend and I were discussing the same, she is married too. She was telling how much time she took to adjust and accustom to the changes.
25 plus years living comfortably in one place, under a roof where every room and wall is your friend. Moving to a totally different place within city or outside, that place is always alien and never feel or refer it as home!

But women do finally take that as their home... That’s the power of women!
For men, it is easy… coz it’s always been their home.  But still I appreciate men for managing between mother and wife attempting to make the wife comfortable in her new home.

Relatives – it is another big challenge… and relatives of relatives is further complicated.
Now you have thrice the relatives as compared to before marriage. It was ok not to enquire or talk on phone or not visiting relatives and their relatives, but after marriage… you are bound to do all that.
May be not all compel in this generation, but I guess still in some families it’s expected.
Thankfully not the case in mine J I am glad!!

But definitely, relatives make a change and their talks and comments…
I suggest “ignore”. That’s the best way to get them out of our line.
“Ignorance is bliss”, truly applicable and best after marriage.

Next comes responsibilities. Before marriage all girls, atleast most of us, don’t have much responsibilities. We have our parents to take care of every little thing.
But once married, even if you have in-laws and other important relatives, you should be responsible. From the house’s cleanliness to assets… That’s a big change which I guess people expect in a day!
Give the woman a little time, it’s there in every woman and she will definitely come out successful.

This pressure is not only in the in-laws side, even in our mother’s. My family will get a good name only if I adhere and follow the above. That’s their thought.

Gimme a break, lot of woman do all this, still they don’t have that good impression. Why struggle.
I suggest, take your time…. First get to know your new family, coz they are important. Your husband. Spend more time with him and make the best use of the first year to impress him the best coz that relation is the foundation for the rest.

COOOKINGGGGG… can I stress more on that? No way!
I am definitely not a good cook and I don’t cook only. My mother in law does and she does it amazingly well that I can never make it like her. So why give competition? ;)
The same pressure from mother’s side as in the above case continues here and sometimes more stressed!
My friend says, a family and impressing them starts from kitchen. So true…..
No doubt you can reach all of their hearts through good tasty loving food. So again take your time for this. Coz first impression is best impression. So learn good cooking, am sure it’s not hard. Just need the right time to do it. Use it.
Don’t compete for the kitchen. If you are in a joint family, give the mother the space she owned in her kitchen all the years. Don’t try to take over. She’ll get offended.  Grow with her in the kitchen and make it as OUR kitchen!!

Attending weddings and other relative’s functions – pressure to look good and impressive. Talk a lot. Smile always…
We attended a marriage recently in another city along with my in-laws.
I was following the “rules” to attend a function as above and yeah… my smile… guess I over did that ;)
One of my relatives commented that … “Oh… come here, where is she the one who smiles a lot”

It was embarrassing, not knowing how to be. I was confused. So should I smile or not???

Again I follow – IGNORE!!

So friends, marriage isn't that hard, just take it as the next event in your life… like education/work so on…
Don’t dread it (I used to earlier). It’s the next occurrence in life… An encounter

I am still in the start, but sharing and learning every bit of it makes it more interesting.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Marriage as an encounter

Marriage – seems to be something that takes you off board literally, as a girl moves away from her home to a new home.

In matter of no time, this happens and I too went through this transition 2 months back!
No doubt I had bounds of fear that cannot be expressed. And I learnt that every girl who becomes a woman after marriage goes through the same.

Fear of being accepted,
Fear of being a “good” daughter-in-law,
Fear of being a “good” wife,
Fear of being a “good” sister-in-law,
Fear of being a “good” co-sister,
Fear of being a “good” aunt for tomorrow,
Fear of change,
Fear of living together,
Fear of household chores,
Fear of work-personal life balance,
Fear of financial troubles,
Fear of differences,
Fear of pleasing relatives,
And so on…..

I've ordered the relationship fears exactly the way it’s prioritized for always in our Indian society, being a “good” daughter-in-law fulfills half the “good” wife requirement. J

Accepting the new people as family is toughest for me. I have had situations where I couldn’t easily take in them as “my” family.  I still refer my mom, dad, grandma and the others with whom I grew up as “my family”.

We all learn from our mistakes and so from others… but every woman/individual has to experience this and learn something new by herself/themselves.

Here are some moments which I would like to recapture on the changes I’ve gone through and enjoyed too…
The day I got engaged, that was the first time I got to meet all my in-laws relatives. I was scared to be accepted by all, because the entire audience of relatives hadn’t seen me before.
But I was shocked and overwhelmed to find that they accepted and welcomed me with full hands!!
The love transmitted in smiles and welcomes… I felt accepted for the first time.
It was almost 2 weeks of pressure I had on this, before engagement.

Courtship – a beautiful time where two people entering into bond of marriage, try to impress each other the best they can to give an assurance to the other that this person is my “perfect” life partner.
I had a period of 4 months and I must tell you, I enjoyed it even more for it wasn’t the way I stated before. I experienced to see a person who was casual and not trying to impress the girl he was going to marry. A practical one!!
I dint have any head over heel moments but definitely could see myself entering into a future of matured relationship.

The reassurance I got through this was high, it could be because of my age too where I wasn’t in for any such flirt talks but I never regretted for not having one either.

As wedding was nearing, the demands in the relationship changed. The fears increased as we were just being two people getting to know each other with no expectation!
I was stunned at myself for this….

Am sure the groom also has his part of fears and they are known easily in the conversations J
The wedding planner begins… the attires, dress rehearsals, honeymoon, mehendi etc…
These are indeed the best part of pre-marriage!!

And I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of this and that. The tension, stress, endless shopping, packing etc.
This is one time and we must cherish and live the moment by enjoying it.

Started counting the days that I was going to be home. Excited and scared!
The wedding day arrived…. OMG… quick…
Wedding is over!!!!!!!!!!!
And am married now….

This is how quick the marriage happens after the months of fear and excitement!!
Sometimes I wondered, did I do all the spending for this one day???
But when I see the pictures and videos, definitely worth it!!!

Happiness of your family and friends, boundless!
Smiles and tears rolling off your loved ones cannot be captured in words.
I really got to see lot of loving moments during my marriage and I will cherish those throughout my life!

And yea, I just got married…. But the encounter of marriage is to be continued….