Arranging the escaped marriage

A couple of us were carpooling on the way home from class.. and we were talking about everything under the sun when he goes "Vidya, is you're family hounding you about marriage now?" with a wink.. well he was joking.. but what he addressed got me thinking a little bit...
There's a lot of cynicism regarding the concept of arranged marriage in India, but then, how much different is it than going on a date with a guy you just met.. Nowadays, arranged marriage is no longer a "meet the guys picture and then marry him", it is really about knowing the guy for 6 months or a year before deciding, the best thing being that its no longer just you who is entering with a serious intent, it is the guy as well..

Coming back to arranged marriages, I started thinking more deeply on whether there was one factor, various expressions of which could explain the psychology behind most or all arranged marriages... I came up with various reasons that I have seen people enter arranged marriages for - fear of an over dominating/protective family or too much love for an over protective/dominating family, the lack of caring because you could not marry the person you loved, fear that you would end up all alone, lack of belief that you could find the person meant for you... at the end of the day.. unless you see the ideal situation of loving a person that is completely acceptable by the family - but in this case it is a love marriage in essence, an arranged marriage in its true self, I realized, is a way of escape.. Escaping from all the insecurities mentioned above... Its a way out where someone else takes a part of your responsibility, and makes the escape easier, where you can fall in love and have the security that the person you fall in love with is not gonna run out on you..

Does it work?? well never been in one.. so too early to judge..

Well coming back to the conversation.. I told him that an arranged marriage was something I would potentially enter.. and that I did not see it as a necessary evil... on the contrary.. ive seen a number of cases where it worked out pretty well... So what escape did I seek???

"That's a secret I'll never tell"