Lakshmi, a headstrong (固执的) woman in her 50s, had been joined in marriage 30 years ago to her husband, a prosperous banker, in the traditional style of an arranged match. She told of how she had only seen a photograph of him before entering into the solemn ceremony and subsequently moving to a new town to live with her husband-in-law. Soon afterward, the two had been walking along a city street -she was a few steps behind him in the proper attitude of a respectful wife- and his long strides had taken him too far ahead. She looked up and found him gone. Lakshmi was lost among the hustle and bustle (拥挤喧嚣) of a very unfamiliar place, and she didn’t mind telling me that she resented his carelessness. “I could have gone looking for him,” she said. “But to be honest, I hadn’t known him that long and I really couldn’t remember what he looked like.” She sat on a pallet beside a vegetable stand until he came looking for her. “It took him quite a while,” she added. By Lakshmi’s frequent barbed (讽刺的) comments about her husband- which she distributed quite freely throughout the year that I was acquainted with her-I could tell that this was the first in a number of incidents that had led her to loathe (厌恶) the man with whom she had had a son and shared the majority of her life. On the other hand, this old-world traditionalist has utter disdain for women who get divorced. Her comment on the subject was simply, “I have survived my marriage. Why can’t they? Women today need to be made of stronger stuff. After all, where will they go? Back to their parents’ home? Who says the girl’s parents will even take her back?” Meanwhile, Lakshmi also believes whole-heartedly in promoting a wide variety of women’s rights and is absolutely disgusted with those old-fashioned thinkers who would prevent women from starting businesses, speaking their minds, and voting according to their free will. She is clearly a strong, independent thinker, and it seems that her difficult marriage has served to make her more so. The fact that she lives within a traditional arranged marriage and that she wears her hair and sari (莎丽服) in perfectly traditional fashion at all times seems to give her a sense that she represents the strength of Indian womanhood itself and that therefore her opinions deserve to be heard. Another example of how modern thought can be unpredictably paired with traditional arranged marriage is found in 25-year-old Shalini. In fear of becoming an old maid, Shalini was, for some time, engaged in a subtle but determined campaign to convince her parents to arrange a marriage between herself and her secret boyfriend. They met in college, and their relationship had largely bloomed over the phone, although she added that her friends had helped her sneak out of the dormitory once to talk with him in person.