Arranged Marriage post # 2

This post is about another arranged marriage, but one that took place long, long ago. It is the story of how my grandparents (maternal) got married. The story may not be very accurate because I don't remember it too well, it was related to us (me, my siblings and my cousins) on a hot, summer afternoon during one of the many summer vacations that I spent with my grandparents and I remember wanting to escape to my uncle's library instead of being forced to listen to my Grandma (who could talk the hind leg off a donkey) relate yet another story. Anyway, I have tried my best to recollect whatever I could.

My grandfather had been married before and his first wife died early of asthma. They had no children. My grandmother was a tomboy and the eldest of five daughters but her father died when she was in her teens. One of her father's friends knew my grandfather and he suggested to my grandfather that he could get married again and that he knew just the girl. My grandfather (I have always known him to be quiet, firm, gentle, principled and very stubborn) agreed since he knew the family and a date was set for the marriage. My grandmother carried out all negotiations of the marriage herself. She was all of fourteen years at the time of her marriage and my grandfather must have been 24 or 25. Reportedly, my grandmother rode into town to arrange for her marriage party and according to her, people were used to her coming and going, so nobody had the inkling that it was she who was to be married. It was quite something in her time and I'm talking of the time when India was still a british colony. Till the day she died, my grandmother was the types who was always heavily involved in any and every sort of activity and always a busy bee. I wish I had paid attention when she related stories about times gone by. For one, I would like to know how she coped with marriage to a man she knew nothing about.