Another Perspective

It's a quiet afternoon, and I had a pretty interesting conversation with my India colleague. It started with his upcoming trip back to India to get married. I has always been amazed by the dominance of arranged marriages in India, even for well educated people like him. His Mom is doing the search for him, he has not come forward with any of his 'requirements', he really does not care, and in about 3 months he will be a married man.

Like most Indian guys, he's never dated in the college. It'd be nice to love somebody in a romantic way, he thinks, but he does not think he would ever in his life. He is happily living by himself, 31-year-old now, and probably he would not get married for at least a few more years were it not for her mother. I asked him how he can make the most important decision in his life in such a fashion, he disagrees. He does not think love is such an important thing for him, it's the compromise, or the willingness to compromsie, that makes any marriage work. There are other things in his life that make him feel happy, romantic love is not necessarily one of those.

People do have quite different utility functions.