Band, baaja, baraat...
After a stellar turn at the World Cup, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh have another “battle” to deal with. Both the cricketers’ mothers have proclaimed that they are on the lookout for brides for their sons. And Yuvi and Bhajji aren’t the only ones. Karan Johar too has admitted that his mother wants him to settle down urgently. Yuvi and Bhajji’s teammate Gautam Gambhir is not immune to the pressure either. His mother Seema says he had promised to look at proposals after the World Cup was done with. “But now he is committed to the IPL so marriage will once again be on the backburner,” she rues.
While it has long been believed that women are the only ones who face the pressure to settle down once they reach a certain age, the fact remains that men too have to go through a similar predicament once they hit a certain age bracket.
Says Ankit Jashore, an investment banker, “It’s a myth that men don’t have to bear constant rants from family members about ‘settling down’. As soon as I found my footing on the professional front, my mother started to stress upon the personal front as well. And beyond a certain age, you can’t even avoid such talks with a brash ‘no’. Now I feel like just giving in and settling down.” But not everyone is as easily swayed in as Ankit. Thirty-one-year-old Noel Krasta says that he had to shift base to Bangalore from Mumbai owing to the constant family pressure to get hitched. “It was getting irksome to battle this topic every day at the dinner table. When I got this timely job offer that required me to shift base, I grabbed the opportunity. But it’s not like my problem is solved. There’s no solution other than to comply,” says the advertising professional.
But the situation isn’t entirely bleak, says just-hitched television actor Jay Bhanushali. “Luckily, I never faced any pressure from my parents regarding marriage or settling down,” he says. “They were always very supportive of me and never rushed me into anything. I got engaged out of my own choice and when I thought it was the right time. I am of the opinion that marriage makes a big impact on your life and hence the decision should be in your hands entirely. My parents respected my decision and stood by it.”
Seconding Jay is VJ Rannvijay, “Maybe it’s because of my Army background, but my parents are far from typical Indian parents who force their children to settle down just because it’s the right age. They only want me to find the right girl — even if it takes me another five to 10 years, they wouldn’t mind,” he says.
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