A knotty situation

Most of my friends have done it. And many tell me that at my age, I should have done it as well. In fact, there are parts in this world where people do it almost as soon as they enter their teens. I was quite horrified to know that amongst certain cultures, they even get kids to do it.

Why just last month, three of my friends did it, tied the knot, that is. I don't quite get the fascination people have with this entirely over-hyped business of tying the knot. It reminds of self destruct mechanisms in the robots of the sci-fi movies that I see. I mean, what is it that makes a man (or a woman) drop every thing that's happening and just, marry???

Is it a devious plan hatched by those inherently sadistic to let no man live a free, contented life? Why else would any one trade one's freedom to a life of tormented servitude??

I believe the old Indian sages were quite wise, really. They had identified different stages in a man's life. Grihasthashram (stage when he lives a married life) lasts for just a few years (after all, how long can a man take it??), immediately followed by Sanyasa (when a man leaves all worldly pursuits to his wife and takes off!!! This new "for better or for worse" thing just doesn't gel with me.

Oscar Wilde did say that marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence, and he was right...

but I agree more with these words from the one and only G.B. Shaw:
Marriage:when two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions. They are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting condition continuously until death do them part