Arranged Wedding

My wife's younger cousin, let's call him Dkwathh, acronym for "doesn't know what's about to hit him" his real Gujarati name is just as hard to pronounce, is getting married next year. Great, nice girl, nice guy.

So anyway they're over at the house for a gathering of relatives when he mentions that he and his bride to be are going to Paris. Business or pleasure I ask?

Another cousin interrupts with, "To get engaged".

I laugh.

The cousins says, "No really. Their marriage has been arranged but he hasn't asked her formally yet".

To which I respond, "What the ^$#@&? How the hell does that work?

Apparently, the soon to be wed couple have discussed the joint veture with each other and the parents who have since arranged the hall for both wedding and engagement party.  Dkwathh need only propose now.

After this brief description, I look as puzzled as ever at the dozen or so Indian cousins around me who laugh and explain, "It's Indian. It's backwards."

So I got to thinking. Maybe, now that I'm married, I could start dating again? And I'd really like to take that calculous exam again. The possibilities.

On further consideration, I mean we do things like that in the west. Planning our own funeral for instance. But then we don't harvest organs until we're actually dead.