A matter of shame

"Very unfortunate" the only thing that comes to my mind when I think of a story narrated by a friend. I narrated the same to my romm mate yesterday and she did not have a different view as well. Well, the story is about my friend's(let us call him Mr. X) friend(let's call him the Mr Antagonist). Now Mr. Antagonist belongs to a family where sons and daughters are married off quite early.Since his family feels that he has come of marriagable age, he has started getting offers(they make it sound like lucrative "job offers"!!) from "good families"(read: wealthy and high caste). The best offer till then with him was from a family which promised him to sponser his studies abroad on the condition that he get engaged to the girl prior to both of their leaving for abroad(wow!!what a settlement). Had I been a boy and had I been made such a offer, I know I would have been shamed. I would have confronted anyone who would even dare to make such an offer.But to my horror and dismay, our protagonist, Mr Antagonist is elated.In fact he is quite excited about the deal(Let me be rude..). I call this highly unfortunate. Before anybody gets me wrong I am not a feminist. I believe in humanity. For me my self respect is the most precious thing I have. And I feel that even by thinking of accepting such an offer and narrating this to someone, Mr Antagonist is losing his. What good was his expensive education if it could not make him sensible and honorable enough to shun such practises. I feel sorry for the girl as well. Everything might spring out of a wedlock like this but true love. I am not against these people but I disregard such kind of mentality especially from people who have recieved education from the best of schools and colleges. It is nothing but, a matter of shame.