Why do parents not understand love? - Srija and Chiranjeevi

Love is in the air and daughters everywhere are running off to their knights in armor. Why is it that parents are so often against the choice of their children?

srija

First there was Priyanka Todi whose brief elopement had sadly ended in great tragedy. Now there is Srija, the younger daughter of the Telegu megastar Chiranjeevi. The angry father had previously expressed shock and anger at his 18 year old daughter's leaving home to marry a 22year old IT guy. The Times of India reports that all is now well with the father wishing the newly weds happiness. But there is here more than meets the eye. We have to put this and other spate of high profile elopements in their right contexts. After all the film industry too is an important index which holds up a mirror to the intangible aspects of Indian society.

What is love? Is not love also what a parent has for her or his children? How is it possible for a 19 year old girl to decide once for all that she wants to be with someone for ever? After all, is marriage not forever? Is not marriage a societal bond, then how is it possible to discard one's family and community in a marriage? It is rumored that Chiranjeevi's attitude is deeply patriarchal and he had prevented the love-marriage of his elder daughter. The fear of caste reprisal is so strong that the Delhi High Court has stepped in and asked for the couple's protection from any honor related violence. What we see happening is a subtle conflict between what is traditionally Indian and what is the view of a much more lively and contemporary legal system. On another level, we find that the idea of love and its consequent marriage is gaining momentum in Indian society.

Legally nothing is wrong but somewhere down the line, we feel sad for the kids and their parents. Do they deserve to be made a spectacle of? The great English literary critic C. S. Lewis had written at length, of course in a European context, on the very origins and nature of love. Is love an invention or was it always there from time immemorial? Be the answer as it may for Indians, yet we cannot but rejoice at least that this couple did not have to go the Rizwan-Priyanka Todi way. We can only wait and see whether the reel-hero father stops posturing and acts like a real hero. His daughter is reportedly waiting for daddy dear to contact her.

Just an afterthought, why did she not think of daddy when she left home? And, if a couple cannot take the pressures of convincing one's family of their love, then can they ever convince the world? Love, it is said, melts iron chains.

Image Credit: The Hindu

Via: Times of India