The Bus to Mysore

Entry 08

Synopsis: Inter state marriages have been becoming common in various parts of Kerala. But in most case, the strata of society are trapped in the hands of cheats. These marriage make-shifts are known in different parts of Kerala by different names such as Mali wedding in Thiruvananthapuram, Salem wedding in Ponnani, Mysore wedding in Nilamboor and Wayanad and Arab wedding in Kasargod. Such marriages invariably leave the girls and their families fated to shed tears and leave sighs for ever and live among the rest staring at the dark future ahead. Mysore wedding is a typical one that involves all the features of such fraudulence. Wayanad and Karavarakkundu and Nilamboor zones in Malappuarm district have large number of girls subject to the treachery of Mysore wedding.

Dollar, Dinar, Riyal, Rubber, Arecaunut and the like when converted into money and amassed by few, the gap between the “haves” and “have-nots” widens. The “haves” when set models in matters like marriage, and the society accepts them, parents in the average families turn helpless. When even the unemployed ones demand lakhs of rupees towards dowry, parents of the girls of marriageable age are driven to panic. Girls past the 10th class face a “fall in Demand”. This situation encourages two types of violation of the law-it keeps alive the system of dowry on one hand and promotes child marriages on the other. Since the practice of dowry is not in vogue in Mysore, proposals from there are looked upon with a relief. But to maintain the pride of the family, the parents offer their maximum in gold and money as dowry. As the Mysore groom takes away their darling child past the Western Ghats, they however, fail to realize that she is passing on to a plight of ceaseless miseries. The girl who is made to accept the maturity of married life imposed on her undergoes all sort of tortures, mentally and physically, from her husband and his relatives. In the culmination of miseries she retires to her parents giving up all the gold and money she had taken with her, and of course, bearing the Mysore seed in pregnancy.

Now on, being a burden to the parents, a laughing stock for the society and a case of teasing and insult before the court, she drags on her wretched life. Through the story of an innocent girl of Malabar by name Amina, the inter state married relation that lead to these, are analyzed and probed into in the docu-fiction “Bus due to Mysore”. Narration by real victims in between and fused to the effect of fiction and documentary at large.