“Till death do us part” – Part of the Christian vows of marriage.
“With you for the next 7 lives”- The Hindu scriptures on marriage.
When we look at most of the religious traditions, they talk about marriage as being a very sacred institution. And it is, at least it used to be in times gone by. Couples married to each other, promised their entire lifetime to their spouses. And that was the way of the world.
That was then.
In today’s world, we see that about 80%of marriages irrespective of their religion, country or area end up in divorce. Whatever the reason may be, we as a whole are very different from our ancestors. And the generation after us??? To me they seem to be the most sorted ones as of now.
A live-in relationship is as good as a marriage, without actually binding yourself to each other. You stay together, you share expenses, you care for each other in sickness and in good health, and you sometimes adopt pets as well. Yet you lead your own lives!!
Seems to be a very convenient situation. And if at all you don’t get along after sometime, you part ways amicably, without the drama of a messy divorce.
Our society, especially the Indians living here in India scoff at the idea of a live-in relationship. We are more concerned about what people will say, what the neighbours think about us? But shouldn’t our first priority be the happiness of the people who take this decision – our very own flesh and blood. Our children!!
For us, as the generation learning to accept all changes in our lifetime, this probably is one of the most difficult changes to accept. The institute of marriage that bore this Generation X Y or Z, is slowly dying out. More and more youngsters embrace a live-in relationship over a marriage. A marriage of convenience, or an open marriage used to be the norm for our generation, where you did not want society to ostracize you for getting a divorce.
The generation of today- they are fearless and open in whatever they believe in. If they are not comfortable with the idea of a marriage why would they get into one. They will commit themselves to someone, or an institution only if it serves them well also. Spending a lifetime in a failed marriage or being bound to somebody they are not sure about……. not their cup of tea.
So what would you call this? A better mature way of living, or shunning tradition?
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