Man and his journey from birth to death. In between both these "accidents", he has a bigger incident this time, in most cases, by choice. Its called "marriage". Why do humans get married? Hmm.. does their sixth sense have something to do with this?
Is marriage truly the distinct characteristic differentiating a human from an animal, for animals or for that matter birds hardly marry. Never heard a bee get "4 flowers" as dowry!
What would happen if in today's world marriages are stopped altogether?
Not in any particular ranking, except that these thoughts come to my mind as a sequence.
The two genders would have less complicated lives. More achievements will follow from an individual and grouping it together, from a society. More time to spend on one's nail trimming or one's crossword.
Surely, the quality of "life" would be much higher, for there would be no restrictions or classifications or expectations to meet. One would get up in the morning and do what one thought of. Very stress free and independent!
The side-effects on the society as such would be much more damning!
Since there are negligible opportunities for arguments or differences, the average person would be healthier and would need lesser medicines. No need to worry about Blood Pressure after the age of 45. No expectations to meet on "i want a boy" or "i want a daughter", which means slightly declining population. If biologically, we can be programmed to reproduce only when we are married, then the previous statement will mean a huge decline worldwide.
The diaper industry will have only one standard size to sustain itself!!
No Marriages means there would be no divorces - the legal industry would have lesser cases to deal with. Buildings and apartments will be more of one bedroom suites and not the extravagant 3 or 4 bed as is today. This results in better buying capacity with additional luxury added in the deal. Surely one beds wont cost a fortune!
Sportsmen like cricketers will play for an extended period of time, for there will be no more cribbing about spending time with a "family" back home. These days girl friends obviously travel with them anyways!
Cooks. house cleaners, drivers would be in high demand. And so would be the restaurants, for most men would prefer outdoor food. Cant always trouble our mothers and grand moms every day, can we?! Home catering with speciality dishes every day of the week could be the marketing mantra.
Average savings would be high, (if everyone knew what the word "savings" meant) and one could go on longer travels abroad and see more of the world. Liquidity wouldnt be an issue, as spending would be quite normal, be it on boy friends, girl friends or on one's interests. This paragraph obviously is self-contradictory and depends on individual's inner tubelight.
The Indian Film Industry would lose dearly, as most of their movie stories depend on how to get a guy and a gal to marry - with complications, with geometry involved (triangle story) - or how to swap people at the last minute in the marriage hall. "Friendship" will become the central theme of all movies, where heroes and heroines would start as buddies in the first reel and continue that way till the end.
"Love" would still be around, but it will not necessarily need to culminate in anything. It will be an ongoing thing, without any boundaries.
"Festivals" will not mean buying costly dresses or jewels! One-liners on TShirts would go like "My Friend wears anything cheap I buy". One could also just buy a photo of a 22 Carat necklace as a gift - like the many cards and ecards we send each other every festival.
Dowry cases will be non-existant, unless you force one of your friends' father to buy a gold watch for new year! No more suicides in the name of "my parents are not agreeing to the marriage" - The cops would surely welcome this.
We think that humans enjoy the best quality of life amongst all living beings. That aint true simply because we havent heard the other side of the story. Animals dont have "love" as their core construct of life, they just move on where life takes them, hibernate here and there, identify new sources of food and shelter, take it day by day, session by session (as they say in test cricket commentary) and yeah, surely, I havent known of any bird cry or any fish weep.
In short - Man works, animals work. Man marries, animals DONT.
Maybe, thats the secret of their happiness.
