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Mock Wedding

It is hard for someone of my vintage to understand the rationale behind Indian kids celebrating mock weddings in college campuses. One way to look at it a second chance at prom and doing it the desi way instead of fitting into something that is culturally more distant. For kids from outside of America, they may have not experienced prom at all - only seen it in Hollywood movies. Its a chance to get in on the action in a familiar setting. There is also Bollywood weddings that many might see as aspirational but reality for them in the milieu of their own family and friends might look quite different.

In a sponsored wedding where the person is the playing the role of a bride or groom, they can have an experience that matches the collective aspirations of those who are there to participate. From what I have observed in friends and family circles back home, Indian youth does not seem to be in any rush to get married and even if they do, they have little desire to have kids. Seems to match what this study found. Many reasons are ascribed to the phenomenon among which is the point of marriage itself:

..Then comes the ‘shift in the attitude’ on the significance of marriage. The youth with higher education don't aspire to get married early. These days becoming a single father/mother is also not considered taboo and many consider a single lifestyle "woke" and modern. The difficulty in finding the right partner with physical and emotional compatibility is another daunting reality of our society that makes most of the youth underconfident in entering matrimony. 

If the stigma of single-parenthood is removed, I can see a lot of people wanting to have a child and raising them without daily drama and conflict where all decisions about that child will involve bickering and negotiation followed by sub-par outcomes. Back in my time being a single-mother in India was a bit of a novelty and people responded to it with some combination on unacceptance and hostility. Even if a parent were to overcome the social pressures, they would find them stymied in getting the child to fit in with their peers and get an equal shot at school and beyond. The shadow of the single parent would block out all light from the child's life. It was unfair to subject them to that. Times have changed now and it makes sense that kids would like to do a fake wedding to experience something they likely will not have in real life. 

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