Sunday, September 10, 2006

Seriously ....

Ever considered….
That modern Sinhala Buddhist marriage seems to be one of the strangest legal agreements around. We enter into a legally binding contract ,sign on a dotted line in front of respected witnesses , and its even filmed on tape-but what we are actually signing for is only very vaguely defined – based on old wives tales and assumptions - there is no ten page contract with large and little print, and the parties to this contract hardly even know beyond the basic theory.

What you are actually signing about is in fact open to as many radical ,personalized and individual interpretations* as the people signing it, but beyond the fact that this man and woman are legally bound to each other, nothing about the nitty gritty is really even spoken aloud, let alone written anywhere…and the funny part is when you try to extricate yourself from this totally undefined contract you need to pay lawyers to help you out and your spouse invariably has better ones who screw up the rest of your life.

Havn’t you seen countless middle aged guys veritable slaves , dolling out princely monthly ransoms for a crime they never committed , that mistaken assumption that marriage would bring them happiness and social acceptance- ...and those countless young women dragging through each miserable day of servitude only because they feel bound by a signature ,but bound to what exactly no one really defines…

There are not ever basic lines in that contract –
1) I agree not to screw around at least not obviously
2) You signing here does not give me the right to beat you up, treat you like a slave and extort your inheritances.
3) I agree if there are kids fathered/mothered by me Ill provide for them/take care of them at least equally.
You'd think these were kind of obvious but there are people out there who thought so and found there wasn’t any legal recourse at the end of the day….their spouses continuously break the most fundamental tenets of the institution day after monotonous day and there is basically nothing they can do…

*rather like the Sri Lankan constitution


Aljuhara apologises for getting all serious, this gloomy Monday : A small plank fell on my head on Sunday when I was trying to fix a light fitting in our ceiling .This is the result.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

well thank goodness it was a small plank. Else you might be considering politics by now...

Indyana said...

Sigh, sigh and morfe sighs!!

Anonymous said...

yes please dont cheat obviously...and if you didnt fall for the person you cheated with DONT tell me about!! Aaaghh...