Last week I was in Hyderabad and my uncle - friend's father - asked me to accompany him to register her daughter's name in the marriage bureau there. Being an Andhrite, he wanted Telugu bride-groom. At the time of registration, the bureau incharge showed us a chart to pick our choice. The chart contains the columns - the bridegroom's names, their caste, their educational qualification, their present emplyment status, with a special highlight in RED if they are NRI, their ancestral property (Agricultural as well as Residential) and final column is the dowry they would take for marriage. The dowry they expect is in bold figures. They vary according to their qualification, caste and their assets. The Reddys, The Kammas, The Kapus, the Brahmins, the Banias (komati in their language), the S.C.s, the S.T.s. The dowry figure runs from crores to lakhs. SO OPENLY THEY DEMAND DOWRY. And I found out that it is quite natural there. Now, I read on this forum from the boys "I have not taken single paisa as dowry, but that devil filed a fake case under Section 498-A and has been harassing my parents and has moved application for impounding my passport", I get a full guffaw. How strange these boys are? They swindle the money at the time of marriage and when cases are filed, they call them fake cases and demand for repeal of Section 498-A. What an irony?
