Garima Sharma, December 27, 2012

In a bizarre show of snobbery and blatant attack on cultural values and traditions, a prospective bridegroom has said “no” to dowry. An FIR was filed in Delhi last week by the victim, a 32-year-old unmarried woman. The woman has been contemplating suicide after such a shameless refusal for dowry from the groom who might never become a groom again.

The angry, courageous lady was not bogged down and dragged the un-Indian man to the police station. After hours of torture, he confessed to the crime: “Yes, I refused to take the dowry.” Within no time, the police station was seized by the public. Members of the ruling party, opposition parties and various moral brigadiers who don’t see eye-to-eye, were seen holding hands, hugging and giving speeches. They expressed solidarity with the victim, whose father had spent his entire life accumulating wealth for his daughter’s marriage.

The media came flocking and conducted interviews of the visibly shaken crowd. Several people reached India Gate to protest against the government’s inefficiency in stopping the decline in dowry practice. “If the groom doesn’t take any dowry, what is the guarantee that he will keep the wife happy?” said one protestor. “Today it is her, tomorrow it could be me. Kudos to the lady for coming out in the open to protest against this ever-increasing Westernization of the society.”

In a hastily-arranged address to the nation, the Prime Minister noted that he also had a wife and three daughters (he double-checked this data from the sheet of paper he was reading from), and so he understands the pain of the woman’s family. He said, “Today, we are shamed as the nation that pioneered the Sati concept in the world.”

The groom has been booked for outraging a woman’s financial modesty by refusing dowry, and for waging war against a nation that holds household disrespect to women sacrosanct.

The police said they were earlier convinced that the girl was lying and even asked her what sort of clothes she was wearing when the man refused the dowry. They also considered booking her for false allegations against a respectable boy who is not so respectable any more.

The parents of the groom, who were trying to flee the country, were also detained for interrogation. The mother of the groom, crying inconsolably, declared, “This man cannot be my son! I had five daughters before him only so that I can have a son who can bring in a lot of dowry, and this is how he repays me. I have spent so much money on him, and made him a software engineer. How I dreamt of being a spiteful, mean, taunting mother-in-law all my life, and now it’s all over!”

The brother of the accused, meanwhile, is ready to pay for the sins of his brother, and has offered to marry “my brother ki dulhan” with all the dowry intact and more. However, the bride-to-be has tuned down the offer and is receiving marriage proposals from Syria and Sudan.

Relatives from the groom’s side have come out with theories for his unmanly actions. Some of the reasons they suggested on social media: the guy could be gay, he might be already married, compulsive wife beater, disoriented aka “mad”. Disturbing stories have surfaced from the groom’s childhood where he was never mama’s boy, has always followed traffic rules, never eve-teased a girl or a guy for that matter, and has never been in a fight. Some claimed of never seeing him smoking or drinking too. This incident has brought forth the bigger issue that such behaviour should be identified in the beginning, and as widely agreed by doctors and elders, the difference between boy and girl must be explained to boys early in life, so that men do not end up respecting women.