Money' Matters'.

Apart from asking me to read aloud lessons and letters or write letters and fill up forms the blind graduates besiege me with legal queries.

One such was regarding inheritance . The favourite and most sought after legal advise is on 'Property'.

The question posed by the blind man was whether his sisters had a stake in the property of his father?There is this wide misconception in India due to ignorance of the Hindu law, that came force after Independence that only men i.e sons are entitled to the property and daughters are to be satisfied with jewels etc given during her marriage.

I told him that he , his sisters and his mother had a equal share in the property in the event of father dying intestate.

On hearing this he drew his breath back sharply and said with obvious frustration ''Chee I wish my elder sister [who was demanding a share in the pie] had a daughter .I would have married her and then there would not be any dispute regarding the property.''[ a parcel of land in his village ]

I pointed it out to him that it was due to inbreeding that genetic diseases like incurable form of blindness etc occurs and he was blessed not to pass it on to the next generation. At which he replied ''No,I would rather have the property than bother about transmission of genetic diseases'' .

Is money --' property' the rationale behind the widespread custom in South of marrying one's sister's daughter?The educated are aware of the dangers of transmitting genetic diseases through marrying within the family ,yet they throw all caution to wind and education to dustbin when the all important matter ----ownership and possession of property crops up .

Up north marrying cousins,uncles or nieces is abhorred as incest and none would dare contemplate marrying his own sister's daughter.This prohibition has been stretched to include those marrying within their Gothra.There exists a 'Sagothra act' which has removed this bar . Since the burgeoning population has made this custom irrelevant. Yet this ancient custom is followed, as I came to know recently that a village panchayat in a Northern state issued a diktat separating a married couple with a 1 year old child on learning that they belonged to the same gothra!

The greed for property is a powerful motivation to most men in India to marry .Love and companionship, takes a backseat. This takes a different avatar up north.That is dowry -- the moolah the freebies --cash,car land etc that a bride is expected to shower the bridegroom and his family.

A girl can be married off only if her parents have the capacity to pay a fat dowry to the groom . The scale of dowry ranges according to the job of the groom .The highly educated IAS officers have the highest price tag! Some dissatisfied in laws do not hesitate to burn the bride and without the slightest prick of the conscience are rearing to go and snap up a new one , who must be wealthier though.

So money 'matters' !