Everything’s Arranged and A Question of Dowry

'Everything Arranged' and 'A Question of dowry are both about marriage in Indian culture. However, to be specific, both stories implemented the importance of dowry, which is used to ensure the groom's charity if anything bad happens to the marriage.

In 'Everything's Arranged', Rukumani, the protagonist is studying at the university and has fallen in love with a guy named Devanayagam, also from the same community as she is. So what is the problem one may think. Oh No! Rukumany has created a big problem. She has ruined her family's dignity and respect to an extend that her parents could not face the other members of their community ; Yes, falling in love is a great sin, according to her parents.

So goes this story and tells us how the poor Rukumani suffers to hide her love from her parents, how she suffers to get away from the arranged marriage her parents are planning for her, how she suffers without seeing her lover Devanayagam and worst of all what happens when she finally tells her parents about her love.

How does the groom's family reacted to the affair that Rukumani's having? They increased the dowry from 10000 to 20000 just to make sure that the story does not leak. They take advantage of the dowry, which seems more like a bribe, than an assurance of charity.

In 'A Question of Dowry', the dowry is also mistreated to an extend that a marriage so near can be cancelled. Sivasothie was going to be engaged and married to a young man named Thiruchelvam that choose by the family. In the beginning, Sivasothie’s parents were preparing dowry, whereby a sum of twenty thousand and a necklace as to give it to the bridegroom’s family, when they wanted to give away theirs daughter to get married. Then, the problem arises when Sivasothie’s father Mr. Ramachandran told his wife that they cannot afford to give the dowry they agreed to give because of the disvalued of his wife’s piece of land to sell, which given as dowry when she got married to Mr. Ramachandran. After that, the future son in -law came to their house when Mr. Ramachandran telephoned him to come. As Thiruchelvam come, Mr. Ramachandran told him the truth about the dowry matters. Then, it ended up Thiruchelvam reject the marriages with his daughter because couldn’t give the dowry promised. Sivasothie feel sad and hurt because she has to forget him to become her husband after while she liked him so much.

Because of the dowry, the marriage is cancelled. From both stories, we may say that people nowadays have taken dowry as a source of money, rather than looking at it as an assurance that the marriage will be happy and harmony. This story come with a lot of moral values to guide readers in their real life.