I asked him, Why do you want to marry me?' because there are a lot of girls here (in the Chicago area) from India," Mundhra said. "He said he wanted a girl from India.
I wasn't afraid to come here because the main thing was I liked my husband."
Rakesh Mundhra, 29, has lived in the United States since he was 7 years old, when his father came to work here as an engineer.
The family has long been a part of the Indian community in the Northwest suburbs, but Rakesh Mundhra wanted a wife raised with traditional Indian values, including a willingness to live with his family.
Neeta Mundhra had the option of denying Rakesh's marriage request, but the couple met twice and liked each other. They shared many of the same values and decided to marry.
"I thought I was going to say, No,' but when I saw him, everything was different," Neeta Mundhra said, laughing. "He was very handsome, and I liked his family."
Neeta Mundhra explained that young, single people in the United States have different ideas about life and marriage than those in India.
For many Indians, the constant support and cooperation of family members is important, while most Americans move away from home in their 20s.
Mundhra carried her beliefs with her to the United States and marveled that American youth have multiple long-term relationships before getting married.
"I just believe in one," she said. "I love American people, but the traditions we have, we cooperate with each other and complement each other, and I like that."
Still, the arranged marriage that brought Neeta Mundhra to the United States became a wedding of two cultures.
Local Indians said it is different living in a country where even people who aren't rich can have such luxuries as cars and cellular phones and heat in their homes.
"The Indians who come here have the education and might be more affluent than other immigrants, but they still have more opportunities to have things here," said Sumit Roy, a master's degree candidate at the University of Illinois at Chicago, studying his native South Asian culture.
Krijoni Kontakt