'Officially' Married!

Courtsey my mother-in-law(She did all the running around and getting forms filled and all) we got officially married yesterday!!! ! And just to put it in perspective we are about 2 days away from our fourth wedding anniversary!!!!!!!!!

We didn't do this at the time of our wedding or anytime soon after that. I had neither changed my surname nor did we need a VISA stamping or anything like that so slowly I just stopped seeing why it was necessary to get this marraige registration done... In these four years we faced no technical/legal issues... Neither of us having estate enough for the other to prove he/she is the better(or worse) half and both earning and capable of supporting ourselves!!!! (Sordid, I know... but a lot of people would think so!) And stubborn as I am, I thought why should I get it done at all??? Why does the GoI care if I am legally/according to Hindu Marraige Act married to the guy I am living in with?? When and how might I have to prove that we are married?? We opened this issue for debates a few times in a bunch of friends and relatives and none, mind you none, was able to come up with a suitable answer!! The best that we got really was that we are fooling the census by withholding this information. And then GoI came up with this regulation, I think, about 6 months back that it is mandatory to register marraige! Now, logic or not, argument or not, we had to do it!

Call it being busy (ya right!~) or truly lazy (more like it!~) or just wary of Government offices and procedures (Also has some bits of truth!~), we finally managed to get it done yesterday...well better late than never right?!

However, by far the best explanation I have got came from my boss. Apparently even he has not done his registration and now when the wifey needs to renew her passport they have gotten themselves in a fix! (She, too, uses her maiden name) If she writes her status as married, she has to produce the registration document and if she does not, then she is mis-representing - a crime!!!! Food for thought, eh? But a reason enough to register, all right!!!

Armed with this logic, in we go in that office and to my utter amazement this place was well painted, not as much spitted on as one would expect, well lit - and by natural light and not deadly yellowed lights, the chaps there actually had a sense of humour - a surprise to moi expecting frowning faces!, electronic!!, a super fast computer operator,a web cam to snap a quick pict of bride and groom and print it out on the certificate (albeit the pictures were taken against the light so probably I can substitute many other attractive men for S and no one would as much as wink! (Chuckle) and he too can enjoy a similar benefit!!!). It did not take us more than 30 mins to complete the entire procedure and that IS quite something, isn't it?!

All-n-all people moi married legally now!!!!!!!