The Newlyweds

Rearranging Marriage in Modern India

De: Mansi Choksi

Narrado por: Deepti Gupta

A thought-provoking and moving investigation into India as a society in transition through the lens of forbidden love, as three young couples reject arranged marriages and risk everything for true love amid social and political upheaval.

In India, two out of every three people are under the age of thirty-five. These are men and women who grew up with the internet and the advent of smartphones and social media. But when it comes to love and marriage, they’re expected to adhere to thousands of years of tradition. It’s that conflict between obeying convention and embracing modernity that drives journalist Mansi Choksi’s The Newlyweds.

In this “heart-wrenching and inspiring portrait of love under pressure” (Publishers Weekly), Choksi shines a light on three young couples who buck against arranged marriages in the pursuit of true love, illustrating the challenges, shame, anger, triumph, and loss their actions set in play.

Against the backdrop of India’s beautiful villages and cities, Choksi introduces our newlyweds. First, there’s the lesbian couple forced to flee for a chance at a life together. Then there’s the Hindu woman and Muslim man who escaped their families under the cover of night after being harassed by a violent militia group. Finally, there’s the inter-caste couple who are doing everything to avoid the same fate as a similar couple who were burned alive.

“The most nuanced, lyrical, and moving book about love and marriage in modern India yet written” (Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum City), The Newlyweds raises universal questions, such as: What are we really willing to risk for love? If we’re lucky enough to find it, does it change us? If so, for the better? Or for the worse?

Beautiful writing. The stories made me laugh and ache.

So romantic and clueless at the start. Each individual adjusting to their partner along the way, as we do, but these people under intense social pressure. Fear, loss, violence all just for being in love. And there’s growth. This is a fantastic story of 3 love stories. The writing filled me with images of India and tormented me as I started to understand the deeply ingrained beliefs that these couples were up against. I can’t even imagine trying to create a lasting relationship in these circumstances. Fantastic to listen to! Highly recommend. Please write more. 5 years of research?! Amazing.