How true can Chetan Bhagat be?

Alert: This is not a post.. Just my thoughts..

When I read his book '2 States' when it was published, the (rather long) tag line of the book caught my attention:

Love marriages around the world are simple: Boy loves girl.Girl loves boy. They get married. In India, there are a few more steps: Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. Girl's family has to love boy. Boy's family has to love girl. Girl's family has to love boy's family. Boy's family has to love girl's family. Girl and boy still love each other. They get married. 

Believe me, it is exactly how things are in India. For a love to succeed (even in this forward thinking 21st century), the boy and girl have to be strong on their love for quite some time to get the above approval. If there are caste and state differences, the time can easily become years.. And mind you, only a fraction of these protests will be because of the boy and girl's parents. More than 90% of the shunning is because the parents think about the reaction of the relatives.

The relatives who never cared about that family other than for a gossip topic. I can understand if someone has to give up the love for their parents. But to appease the relatives?? Never! These relatives make fun of and shun the boy/girl till they have wrought a career for themselves. When the boy/girl is successful, these same relatives starts to swarm them to ask favors. And this is the exact reason that I cannot accept it if someone has to change their decision to make these chameleons happy. 'Cos the relatives are going to shun them once they get their favors fulfilled..

  

And in the years the boy and girl fight for their marriage, sometime in between, they forget that they loved each other and concentrate more on fighting for each other AND fighting for each others' family's reputation in the opponent's eyes. By the time they get married, they realize to their horror that they are not comfortable with each other as much as they were before. Some try to rekindle the spark and succeed. Some let the ego take the lead and get divorced. I should also mention that many are intelligent enough to maintain their connection and spark all through their battle and come out of marriage much more confident, matured and successful. Just do not let the spark die. 'Cos when you realize that you changed your mind to marry someone (your parents chose) who turned out to be a a*****e, it would be too late to go back and fix things up.