Getting consanguineous...

Well I always keep wondering as to why my beliefs and judgements hardly match with those of the others.The way I think and reason out very often discords with atleast 90% of the crowd around me. But now I am sure, atleast 99% of the people might not hesitate to pick on this post of mine. My sole intention of releasing this post is not to discourteously scoff at people , but only to understand the mysterious and knotty logic behind this tradition which we've been following since eons.

So the concept of 'consanguineous marriages' is something the society is very much cognizant of and is quite customary especially in the southern part of India. 'Consanguineous marriages' refer to marriages between first cousins(being precise , it refers to marriages between people related by blood). According to this practice , a guy is weaponed with a birth right to wed his dad's sister's daughter or his mom's brother's daughter (provided she is younger to him). MOst people are such staunch followers of this custom that they often settle such marriages even when their children are just infants. Parents brazenly discuss the so called impending wedding in the presence of their wards, all throughout their childhood, completely unconcerned about the fact that are mere kids. They begin to tame , train and mould their children's clay minds, persuading and convincing the little ones that they are made only to live together, fully ignoring their age group and levels of comprehension.

Being quite candid, I've found this theory completely devoid of logic. To all those people who fully second this phenomenon , I have a very cogent question to ask. " When your dad's brother's daughter (or mom's sister's daughter) is considered to be your sister, why is it that there is a dreadful change of relationship when it comes to your dad's sister's daughter (or mom's brother's daughter). As a matter of fact , be it my dad's brother or my dad's sister , they are indeed siblings to each other and their children definitely comprise my loving cousins. How different is the latter cousin from the former ?? MY eyes, surprisingly see no concrete difference in these relationships. If the former can be my sister who affectionately sends me a rakhi each year, so can the latter be !!!

Such relations among cousins somehow sounds abysmal to me and Iam in full agreement with the North Indians who denounce this very concept. In the North, children of one's aunt or one's uncle are treated as ' brothers and sisters' without any outrageous and mindless discrimation.

This practice is so deep rooted in our society that though parents play no role in such marriages , the children have no qualms in following it. They seem to possess that implicit and inherent right which encourages them to eye each other right from the beginning. Why do I feel that these people are light years away from logic ??? Why do certain parents swear to perform consanguineous marriages completely being indifferent about their children's future likes and dislikes ?? Why do even the educated decide to get along with a consanguineous relation despite knowing the fact that they might be hazarding their own health ??? Why is that people don't question the vacuous existence of traditions ?? They seem to blindly and merrily follow them just because they have been in practice since ages.

Its high time parents stopped being the cause for the unreasoned fondness the kids begin to develop for each other, when they don't even know what the institution of 'marriage' means.

P.S. : My sincere apologies to those whose beliefs might have been hurt by the above brusque remarks.