We Indians love flaunting our worth. While people in northern India spend on grand wedding receptions, in southern India we spend heavily on assets like gold for the bride and the groom. Unfortunately, gold is also considered the safest means of currency for dowry, for it gets easily passed over as the 'stri dhan' (bride's money) and nobody can question what a father gifts his daughter. Men and their families demand different weights of gold that their bride should be loathed with on the wedding day.
Every dad starts preparing for the day from the very first day that he gets the news of him being a dad to a girl.
So when the day comes, most dad's are prepared with their ability to gift their daughter a certain amount of gold, but there are cases where some dad's dont.
I remember this incident wherein I attended a neighbors cousin's wedding. The wedding was a grand affair and the girl was wedded into a rich family. The bride looked pretty and was loathed with jewellery. Her jewellery was the only topic that every group at the venue were talking about. Finally the wedding got over and the bride shifted to her husband's house. Within few days the bride had to return back to her parents house because it turned out that her father was unable to arrange the promised gold and instead he bought some fake imitations thinking that the groom and his family would not know until he could arrange the money and exchange it with real ones. To his bad, the groom's mother was an expert in finding fakes.
The groom's family felt cheated and they soon applied for divorce and are now finally divorced.
I don't understand what good the gold would have been to the groom if he in no way had to sell them or use them. However the bride was going to use the gold and she was okay with using fakes. Fake jewelleries are so similar to real ones that you need to be an expert to spot the difference.
I am happy that I belong to a community where gold or any form of dowry is not entertainment. I hope people in my city learn from my small community.
Father's won't dread a daughter's birth of this dowry thing comes to an end. Hope it happens soon.
