शादी में ज़रूर आना

In this chapter, students of Hindi will acquire the vocabulary, cultural knowledge, and reading skills necessary to understand and discuss arranged marriages and ideals about love and romance in India. In an arranged marriage, parents oversee the process of finding a spouse for their child. In previous generations, couples had little interaction before their wedding day, but today they will often date for a time after their engagement. In a “love marriage,” by contrast, a couple falls in love and decides to marry without the mediation of their families. Such marriages are common when a bride and groom come from different castes, economic classes, and religious communities. The chapter includes pre-reading questions about the role of parents in marriages in the reader’s country, a glossary of relevant vocabulary, and a story in which a girlfriend and boyfriend break up in a phone call because the boyfriend refuses to go against his mother’s wishes for his marriage. The notes on culture elucidate issues related to arranged marriage, and the activities guide students in their comprehension of the story and in applying this knowledge in role-play in which they act out the characters in the story and try to make up.