Ranga’s marriage was performed at a time when old values and customs still dominated our social scene. The twenty first century is not the age of arranged marriages. No doubt, villages are the last citadels of superstitions. They continue practising arranged marriages in one form or the other. In the modern world of science and technology, there is little room for conservative practices. These days boys and girls don’t need a helper. They meet frequently. They try to understand each other. They judge all pros and cons. Then they resolve to become life-partners. Their parents simply give their approval. If they oppose, the marriage is still solemnised in the court. Even in the villages things are now different. Certainly the Indian society has moved a long way from the way the marriage is arranged in the story.

It was the narrator who thought that Ranga would make a good husband for Rama Rao’s niece Ratna. Hence, the initiative comes not from the boy or the girl. Ratna is ‘a pretty girl of eleven’. People could think of marrying off a girl of this tender age only in Hosahalli village of Ranga’s time. Today it is unimaginable. Child marriage is legally prohibited and banned.