Husband and Wife - The Indian Potpourri..

Indian expatriates form a large group of the work force in Malaysia. They're many in my company and 99% of them are males. Once in a while we (Malaysians) receive wedding invitations from them. Supposedly, they're getting married and you can see the joy on their faces when they come around dispensing their invitations. These weddings are always in India and so are the brides but the guys are here in Malaysia. 

I'm not going to renegade on them or write anything ballistic this time around but whenever I get a wedding invitation from an Indian colleague I always ask myself - how is it this guy, who has been in Malaysia for almost a year, and who never socialises, is suddenly ready to tie the knot.

So, I got myself into a question and answer session with a colleague who recently got married and returned to work after a one-month long holiday.

Me : How's married life?

Indian with a gleam as wide as his face, "Very good, wonderrrful."

Me : So, does your misses like it here in Malaysia.

Indian gleams again : "Oh, she is in India."

Me  : "What!.. why?"

Indian : "She need to apply for passport, then prepare herself for the travel here to Malaysia."

Me : You mean, before you got married you never told her to get ready with the passport and the rest of the arrangements.

Indian, this time with a bigger gleam : "I only told her after the wedding."

I was rather surprised and asked vehemently, "You're working here in Malaysia, and you know she will need to travel with you to Malaysia, how come you never told her way before the marriage?"

Indian again with the never fading gleam : "I only talked to her for the first time after the wedding. Before that I have never seen her. Only her photo."

Errrr....You what? - that's what I said, not to him but to myself. 

In reality, the Indians claim without them, there would be no NASA, without them there would be no doctors and surgeons on the planet, without them half the world's work force would cripple - and here is an Indian (post graduate degree holder) saying he only saw, met and talked to his wife only after the wedding.  Go figure!

And yes, Indians today still practise and believe in marriages made and tailor -suited by their parents and not them.