My family is pressurising me to get married to a girl I am not interested in. I am 36 and the girl is 28. I am traditional, old school and she looks younger, the partying, late night kinds. She is very active on social media. In fact, she was very judgemental about my clothes and totally non-committed about relationships when we spoke in our first meeting. I can say with confidence that our vibes don't match but my parents don't seem to understand my expectations. There was no formal engagement but my parents are proceeding with the marriage formalities because our parents are business partners. They feel I am overthinking and overreacting. I feel like no one is listening to me, what I want, including my grandparents. What should I do? I want to run away from all this drama.

Dear Love Guru, I'm 30 and my parents want me to get married. I have a boyfriend but I am not interested in getting married at the moment. Neither is he. I tried talking to my parents, but they are very adamant. Sometimes, my boyfriend and I feel we should pretend that we got married; the pressure is so much. What can I do? I want to travel, enjoy my life and then settle down. How do I handle this?

Hi Ma'am, I got married few years back to my boyfriend. It was an intercaste marriage to which my parents opposed very strongly. They tried doing everything from verbal abuse, emotional abuse, guilt tripping, calling names, blaming my education to even asking me to leave my job. But with my elder brothers support I was able to still go ahead and got married to him. Today my parents love my partner a lot and are very happy with the very same person and his family which they were earlier opposing to due to fear of what others will say to this intercaste marriage. But today there is a similar situation built up at home with my brother's wedding. He is in his 30s and parents are concerned of getting him married asap. He told them about his girlfriend from other caste which was okay with the parents but they didnt like the girl purely from looks. They are concerned now that people will question them why you bought such a bride for your son and that they had so many beautiful prospects to which they said NO and now will be making this girl a bride of the house which will open them to mockery of others. They have not even met the girl but only after seeing photos they are so negative and again hurting us as well as themselves by saying lot of negative toxic things and guilt tripping for everything they have done for us. I feel they will become happy in few years but at this point they are not even agreeing to meet the family due to which the girl's family is getting apprehensive of marrying their daughter to our family. I have been trying to convince my parents but they start saying things like you also did the same so you will obviously support and we don't want to be a part of anything. If you want to get married go ahead and do it but don't expect us to be a part of it. What should I be doing?

Hello Mam, I have been in a relationship with a foreigner for last 4 years as I live outside India. Recently my parents (who live in India) started talking about my marraige and I told them about my relationship but things went quite bad from there. They don't want me to marry her as they said she looks different, out of our culture and above all, in all family events and gathering people will make fun of them make life hell for them. What should I do in this case? I did tried to explain them why I want to be with her and she is also willing to steps to understand our language and culture, but my parents are saying "she is just saying those things right now, priorities will change once you start your own family n all"

Hi All, I'm 28 M working in IT sector. My parents and relatives are asking me to get married. I've always been single and I like that way and the way marriage as an institution is failing for men in India. I do not wish to be married. I have already said this to my parents and everyone in family a lot of times that I do not wish to be married, yet they are not understanding my situation and telling me that everything will be fine. Please just let me know how can I handle this situation.