The young woman’s response – that perhaps she’d live with her husband separately – drew mocking laughter from the anchor and the mothers. When one of the young women said that she’d like her parents to buy household appliances for her new home, Gobinath asked her why she’d need all that since her husband’s home was likely to have them already. Known as “thani kuduthanam”, the desire to move away from the husband’s parents has been the hallmark of a “villi” in Tamil society as well as popular culture. Why would the sons want anything “in return” when their gender privilege ensures that everything is handed over to them on a platter? Although Gobinath did make a point about girls being unwanted in their homes later in the show, the tone of the narrative was largely an indictment of their “greed”, rather than analysing how tilted the equation is.Īlso worrisome was how the young women’s wishes to stay independent of their in-laws was viewed.
Now when we ask for things at the time of marriage, they say they can’t give. This, after at least two women on the show spoke about having to do a less expensive course because their parents were only willing to cough up that much money for the boys in the family.Īs one of the women put it, “Whenever we (girls) asked for something as children, it was denied to us and we were told the money was being saved for our wedding. He added that her job in an IT company was the “dowry” her parents had given her. In between the arguments, anchor Gobinath injected his thoughts once in a while – when a young woman protested the fact that she’d been forced to hand over her entire salary to her family all these years and that she was only asking for the money back through dowry, Gobinath said that if she’d been a son, she’d have done this without expecting anything in return.
When she comes, she will get her gold and come. When one mother said she will give some gold to the daughter-in-law who comes into the house, her visibly hurt daughter flared up and asked, “I was born in your womb. Silver vessels and other items were preferable. On the other side, a mother flatly refused to give her daughter fixed deposits because that would be an invisible gift which would do nothing to elevate their status in society. “Only if you give me double that of what the groom’s family demands, will they treat me with respect,” reasoned one young woman. Neither party disagreed that a woman’s worth in her marital home was measured by how much dowry the bride brought. You could see it in the clear son preference among the mothers – why would we give you, the daughter, the house when you will anyway get married and leave? You could see it in the way the young women narrated their childhood dreams – one wanting a lehenga worn by a film star for her wedding reception when she was only in Class 10, another declaring confidently, “I was born for my husband!” To begin with, nobody – neither the young women nor their mothers – questioned the fundamental assumption that marriage was inevitable and that it would be the biggest event in the young women’s lives. But as the show progressed, it became apparent that it wasn’t quite as simple as that.Īnd sadly, though both parties were on seemingly opposite sides of the debate, they were speaking the same language – that of patriarchy. Most of them want a centrally located house, a vehicle, household appliances, and at least 50 sovereigns of gold as dowry. On the other side of the debate were their mothers, listening to their tall dreams and telling them that no, it isn’t possible for us to hire a helicopter for your wedding (not kidding – this is actually from the show).Īt first glance, the young women appear to be nothing more than selfish, entitled brats. Yes, you read that right – not families of the groom, but the bride asking for dowry herself. The subject of the show was how young women demand dowry from their parents at the time of marriage.
NEEYA NAANA LATEST EPISODE ABOUT NEWLY MARRIED COUPLES TV
The latest episode of Tamil talk show Neeya Naana which was aired on Vijay TV on Sunday has created quite a bit of discussion on social media.