Why do men marry?

Sitting in Mohit's office yday after a 'very ordinary' lunch at China Garden, we had a very interesting chat with Mohit's friend, Saurabh. He is a bachelor and seeking to marry. When he told us that he was confused about the whole arranged marriage institution, it left me with a thought. Though Mohit and I both told him to go ahead with his gut and forget everything after that, I did observe both the boys chatting about the social union of shaadi.

Mr.Macho did have a very interesting suggestion which made me think even more. "Haan kar de yaar, ek saal tak to mind change nahi hota", he said. This brought about a collective laughter but left some questions in my mind. Biggest one still looms, 'Why do men marry?' Do they actually change their mind sometime after?

I thought and thought on the drive back home and derived some theories within the one hour process. I think most of those opting for arranged marriage marry out of a compromise. To put it simply, they need a buddy! Most of their guy pals have spouses and they need a partner for themselves too. Again, in other words, there is no one available to have fun(????) with or hang out with. So they choose the best option, an always there WIFE! And then maybe after the one year of fun, the re0thinking(Like Mohit mentioned) creeps in...and the rest is history as they say.......

Mohit also chipped in here with another idea. He tells me that many men also marry because 'they have to marry'. Which I assume means that they admit that life has to carry on and wedlock(aka misery) is the fourth phase preceded by childhood(fun), adolescence(aka more fun) and Jawani(aka Explosive fun).... So this misery is something that is inevitable, also brought on by a little peer pressure and a whole lot of parental pressure...

But I think in the end, most men do live up to their saat wachan. They seem to manage pretty well at the end of the day. Delicately balancing the mother/wifey challenge, keeping the finances in control, keeping the in laws happy and still keeping that smile in place. Being a girl, I only know all this on the outer and a guy can enlighten us more on this. But it surely was interesting thinking of it...