Sunday, 7 December 2008

Crazy Bengali Parents


I spotted this in the Telegraph and had to write about it. Usual story of NHS GP happily functioning in England being mistreated by her parents. The lady is now being held captive. Is this better or worse than being at the London Deanery?! Well, I guess not or was that just in poor taste? I never understand why Bengali parents educate their children in England then expect them to do what they want ie marry someone short who eats masses of beetle nut and can only have sex in one position. Seriously, these are serious issues. These crazy Bengali parents need to understand that if they want their precious little virgin girls to have arranged marriages, they need to

1. Deny them all education
2. Remove their ability to THINK
3. Ensure they are obedient from the start.

NOT - give them a public school education in the UK, a University qualification, create their ability to THINK then assume they will simply "obey".

As a Bengali gulab jamun eater, if I had agreed to a silly arranged engagement, I would have a screw loose in my head. The point about this girl and her predicament is this, she did nothing to prevent it initially and allowed the situation to escalate. Parents who are dysfunctional tend to go a bit potty if they are not set boundaries from the outset. I think Bengali children have to understand that they can't please the world and its goldfish. In the end, you have one life, you live it for yourself and no one else.

This GP has gone missing in Bangladesh. No one gets found in that lawless country. It is a bit like getting lost in India. Missing people stay missing.

As for arranged marriages, I have known many to happen in the UK because asian girls feel pressurised by tradition. I guess this is due to a serious confusional state about identity. Girls are torn between the freedom of England and living up to their parents idea of having a husband with 3 Mercedes Benz and 4 Platinum American Express cards and who is a systems analyst. So what is a systems analyst again?!!! Seriously who wants to spend years being the dutiful wife when there is a world out there?

It is true that one of my friends married a horrid man who was found for her. He owned a corner shop and raped her daily. In the end, he suddenly died of food poisoning. Now no one will apparently marry her and her life is apparently shattered??!! Really?! The other friend went with me to a reading of Meera Syal and spoke to her after the show. Yes, she did indeed insult Meera for marrying an English guy and crowed away about how she had dumped her English boyfriend [ who was in love with her] to do the right thing via tradition. She spent the rest of her time in regret.

As for me - it is one man, he is a English guy and a fabulous one at that. I am going to marry him one day by the sea at Lizards Point or Hawaii. He is the one who stands by me in the hail, snow and rain and never lets go. I know that no Bengali man would ever do that. Most Bengali men still have not evolved away from clutching to their mother's skirts. So, essentially you can't see them coping with a Bengal Tiger.

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