(Un)arranged Marriage
“(Un)arranged Marriage” is the novel, written by Bali Rai, that deals with the issues of arranged marriages and living in two cultures at the same time. By telling the story of the protagonist Manjit or “Manny”, as he is often called, Rai provides the reader an insight into Indian traditions and some of the conflicts that could arise when a family suffers from lack of tolerance towards other opinions.
Manny is born in Britain and lives in Leicester with his very traditional Indian family who has different views from his own. His family wants to force him to follow these traditions and among other things marry at the age of seventeen to a girl of their choice. Manny, not sharing these views at all, becomes very rebellious and starts spending more time outside his home with his best friend Ady, a Jamaican boy that Manny’s father despises because of the fathers racist views. His family live in Britian but still, for example, refuses to speak English or have non-Indian friends. Manny starts smoking, drinking and going out with Lisa, a white girl. As his father does not approve of this lifestyle, these many circumstances creates several conflicts in Manny’s household and the reader follows this young boy as he gets yelled at and even beaten up by his angry father. Still, Manny remains rebellious which leads to his family organizing a trip to India in attempt to make their son become a real Punjabi. While in India, Manny starts to enjoy himself and likes the country. However, when his parents leave him there without a passport he becomes devastated. When he later manages to return to Britain he is very upset and his family starts arranging his marriage, which it appears Manny has changed his mind about. It is finally revealed that Manny had not changed his mind at all and was planning to escape all along.
Even though the writing itself is not