Kundli (horoscope) - the magical piece of paper that holds the answers to all questions unfathomable to the logical mind of a sane human being. Apart from holding the powers to foresee about how the child would fare in his studies, whether the beta has the yog of flying abroad and how much money would he mint; the kundli becomes the most sacred and sought-after word for Indian parents when it comes to getting their offspring married to complete strangers.
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After
all, when the prospective partners aren’t allowed to talk to each other for
more than a few hours, let alone allowing them to date other person, one
obviously needs a measuring scale to decide whether this is ‘the stranger’ who
you can get your child to spend their life with? Well well, the kundli
comes to the rescue. For it is not the likes and dislikes of the children that
should help choose their partner, but it is some random planetary position that
gets the privilege of deciding whether this is the best dulha (groom) for
your rajdulaari (princess) or she is the perfect bahu
(daughter-in-law) you are looking for your eklauta beta (only son).
Your
khandaani pandit (priest) plays a very important role in this ‘stranger
gets married to stranger’ game. For it is him who would after some deep
analysis of the rahus and the ketus residing in the kundlis
of both the girl and guy, shall he let you know whether she is ‘the stranger’
who would keep your son happy, be a good daughter-in-law bringing in prosperity
to your household and who shall also bear you the khandan ka varis.
The
zodiacs are matched. Very necessary. For an Arian shall find it hard to get
along with a Capricorn and shall be best compatible with a Gemini. The mangaliks
are to be set up with fellow mangaliks only. Wait, the ones having shanis
would also do at times. The planets and their positions are studied, dashas
and mahadashas are calculated, matched and after trying various permutations
and combinations of the planetary positions of both the stranger parties, a
score is arrived at out of a total 36 points. This score is ‘the’ magical
number which would decide whether to go ahead with this particular stranger for
your child or not.
Anything
below 18 is not acceptable at all and this rishta is to be dismissed off
without another thought. Yes, even the planetary positions need a minimum
number of passing marks. Well, if the scores stand anything from 25 to 32, then
this particular stranger with whom the score has been achieved can be met and
then be judged on other parameters.
And
Holy Hell, if the score is anything above 32, rounds of gulab jamuns start
circulating amongst the families already for this is ‘the’ match that is made
in heaven. And come hell or high water, this rishta cannot be refused. Because
this is ‘the’ bouy that is supposed to give your daughter all the happiness she
deserves in the world and she is ‘the’ sanskari bahu your house would
ever get. And making the guy meet the girl and other such unimportant events
later, boom.. they are married !!
In
this process, one might also come across families that aren’t compatible to
yours. And this magical piece of paper called kundli comes in handy for warding
off such families. The mother just puts up a sad face and announces with a sigh
to the other mother that the kundlis aren’t compatible which is
responded by the other party with another sigh and something like ‘it’s all
destined’ and other such well-rehearsed lines. Both the parties know the truth,
but none utters. After all, it is so rude to say that your beta isn’t earning
as much as our daughter. Why say and spoil, when you can blame it all on the kundli?
So
you see, things are that simple in our arranged marriage system to decide
whether he/she is ‘the one’ or not. Pretty convenient, ain’t it?
This
post is written as a part of April A to Z Challenge 2014 under Non-Themed category.
I am doing two posts for this Challenge and Themed posts can be found here.
