You just don't hear stories like these anymore

One of the new guys at work (V) is always on the phone. In fact he seems to have his handsfree set surgically implanted to his head! So I asked him if it was his girlfriend he was talks to so often. The other new guy started laughing and said that it wasn't his girlfriend but his wife! I was surprised because he seemed a little young to be married, but not too young. Then I heard the entire story.

Many years ago, a family moved next door to V. They had a young girl in the family, about four years younger than V. She started coming over to V's place to get tutored. Soon they started liking each other and decided to get married. But the families weren't crazy about that idea. Meanwhile V's older brother was getting married. So under the chaos of the wedding, and with the blessings of his brother, V and his neighbor's daughter got a registered wedding! The process for a registered wedding is not too complicated, but one of the trickier aspects is that you need to apply for the wedding a whole month before you show up with garlands. What the office then does is takes the pictures of the two people who intend to get married, and posts them for a month at the local post office. The idea is similar to "If you object to this union speak now" - basically if anyone in the area knows these two and feels the desire to poke his/her nose, this would be the way to do it. So to circumvent this, V had applied in the neighboring district. A whole month goes by, and on the day of the elder brother's wedding is here. V takes his girlfriend, and in a very cinematic scene, drives about 50 kms each way, gets married and comes back.

Of course there was a huge argument from everyone but eventually they accepted the match, and even agreed to have a real wedding for the couple. The wedding's going to take place in a couple of years from now, when the girl graduates from college. What I personally thought was a little insane here is this two-year wait. Reminded me of Ek Duje Ke Liye. Can we trust the parents to keep their promise? Are they expecting the couple of get tired of each other in these two years. Most importantly, I thought events like these stopped happening in the 80's. We still have elopings and registered marriages in the cities?