News Bits: Books and more books
Misc / Publishing NewsArranged Marriages / childrens-books / Library / Oklahoma / South-Asian1 Comments
A human chain to move books – How do you get a lot of children’s books from here to there? By hand, of course. Well, they could have been transferred by the boring method of boxes and trucks but thousands of citizens of Norman, Oklahoma turned out on a Sunday to pass them, hand by hand, from their old home to their new one.
The human chain stretched all the way across Andrews Park, snaking between picnic tables and pavilions, past a kickball game, over two roads and across a parking lot.
The chain ended on both sides in libraries, one old and one new. In between were the people who had loved the old library, some for decades, and people who were ready to welcome the new one.
The chain was a book brigade, a line of people passing books from the old Norman Public Library Central to the new Norman Central just across the park.
Residents also got a look at the new library facilities and a chance to revisit their memories of favorite books from childhood.
Arranged Marriages Take A Modern Spin in Recent Novels by South Asian Americans – Several authors have recently written and released books that speak to their own experiences and those of South East Asians in love and matrimony.
Call it an arranged-ish approach to meeting a spouse.
That’s how author Zara Raheem ended up meeting the man she would eventually marry.
“Arranged marriage wasn’t a concept we discussed much in my family growing up, but it was implicitly understood that when the time would arrive, that was the method my parents were most comfortable with,” Raheem said. “I was well aware that while my parents or family members would be the ones introducing me to someone, there was still a choice that existed within the process — a choice that ultimately belonged to me.”
Statistics show that the majority of couples in arranged and semi-arranged marriages are happy and content with their partners. Maybe these stories can demystify and open up what is really the age old concept of “Hey, I know someone you might like.”
I think it really depends on the family’s motivation in arranging a marriage. My maternal grandparents essentially threw away my mother because she had gotten too old by the standards of the early 70s India. Then, in the mid 90s US, my parents tried to arrange a marriage for me but I didn’t trust my father to have my best interests at heart, so I resisted as best as I could and now I’m happily single at forty-seven.