Observations & Views:

Newlywed Kanchana Iyer said, "For me love was really after marriage. I do not think I have experienced true love yet. I am starting to."

Betty Rollin, the reporter, said, "It is the parents' duty to find a match for their children, which is as much a match between families. That is the way it has been for thousands of years in India and many American Hindus see no reason to change, especially when the young people themselves are devout. Besides today they have veto power over each candidate." Another Indian bride, Nila Radhakrishnan, a 25-year old doctor, said, "When I was four years old on the playground and asked by my classmate who was also four years old to marry him, I said it could not happen because my parents had to pick." Ms. Rollin remarked that some young people rebel against this tradition, as did Nila Radhakrishnan when she was a teenager. After her arranged marriage, Nila Radhakrishnan was happy that her parents found her a mate. She said, "It's not as if I am going to be able to meet the person of same background at 7-Eleven."

Ms. Rollin said, "How do the arranged marriages fare? The divorce rate among Hindus is extremely low." Dr. Steven Wolin said to Ms. Rollin, "These religiously arranged marriages can have both positive and negative consequences. As you elevate sacredness of marriage in a couple, more likely it is that the couple will stay together, and they would feel that their marriage is sacred institution &endash; a sacred vessel. Now the down side of that is there may be a tremendous pressure if the marriage is real bad."

Ms. Rollin remarked, "Arranged marriages are based on a different premise, commonality and shared values. Love is for later." Dr. Wolin said, "Despite the lack of romance and incidents of failure, everyone can learn from the ancient tradition of arranged marriages. The strengths of arranged marriages are that the spouses are carefully selected by the families in terms of similar values, similar social class, similar history, similar interests. Couples who have more similarities than differences do better."

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Sir George Birwood has given an intriguing description of a fund-raising practice [for charity] used by Jain and Vaishnav guilds in Gujarat in the following words:

"A favorite device for raising money is for the men of a craft or trade to agree on a certain day to shut all their shops but one. The right to keep open this one is then put up to auction, and the amount of bid goes to the guild fund."

It is a sorry state of affairs that we Jains are still indulging in similar practices.

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The health of the economy is considered by many an excellent indicator of the general quality of life in the U.S. Since the economy has been booming over the last several years, everybody must be doing fine, right?

The Fordham Institute for Social Policy has created what is called the Index of Social Health &endash; an annual index of 16 separate measures used to assess quality of life. The measures include such things as high school completion, health insurance coverage, and rates of drug use, child abuse and teen suicide.

According to Fordham Index, the quality of life for the general public in America has declined about 50% since 1975, while the gross domestic product (GDP), an indicator of economic productivity, has risen steadily. Other national indexes of social well-being document similar declines suffered by the American people.

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