大象传媒

Naresh Puri sits in for Nihal. After 1- Is it time to ditch the dowry?

We're asking this because we've stumbled across a Punjabi blog called Kaurista which is having a moan at the demands put up by grooms and their families when it comes to marriage demands.

She talks about how she overheard one guy demand a pair of "real" Raybans- otherwise he'd marry someone else. We've heard stories of families demanding BMWs, Plasma TVs and of course cold hard cash in order to make a marriage go ahead.

Is there any place for this sort of behaviour in the 21st century? Is the practise of giving and even demanding dowries still taking place in this country, or, is it something restricted to the villages back home? The idea of a dowry is that its paid to the groom's family for the burden of taking on a daughter- is that an insult in 2011?

After 2- It's our weekly cricket panel. After the debacle of Lords can India bounce back in Nottingham?