His Life .. with 20 wives !

Ask anyone, what marriage means to them, and majority of them would respond with "complete and mutual understanding of each other". Those in favour of a love marriage, probably would say that even friendship must be a necessary element for a successful union.

Traditional Indian arranged marriages relied on the ability of parents, relatives or a middle man (or woman) to locate such potential match and work with both parties to finally get the bride and groom side to agree on the marriage and bless them. This system has been successfully working for the centuries.

With the rise in educational level and financial independence of the youth in India, the arranged marriage to some people, who I feel are still a minority, sounds more like deranged marriage. To them, if the boy and the girl can meet each other on their own and develop the bond by themselves, that union makes lot more sense than one arranged by some other person. So even in the land of its origin the arranged marriage is slowly being replaced by "involved marriage" or "don't worry I will find my own marriage".

Despite the fact that the youth in India has a large number of people to choose from, Indian society does not promote polygamy in any way.

So, it was this article that really left me amused about the state of marriage affairs in Nigeria !

I have more than ten. In fact, when I publicly declared 10 wives and 40 children, my wives protested that they were more than that. In actual fact, they should number up to 20 and my children should be about 50. In fact, they are so many that I have lost count of them. It may shock people that I don’t even know most of my children anymore. Most of them were taken away by their mothers when they were babies. Even during my anniversary, some were fighting one another and we had to reconcile them. For instance, one came all the way from the North. I couldn’t recognise him but when he described his mother, I was able to know that he is my son.

Is it really a case of 20 times married ... 20 times happier !!!