Married to escape family, now I'm stuck
So I’m 28, from a small town near Pune. My parents… they wouldn’t stop with the pressure. Marriages, setups, constant talk about ‘settling down’ like I’m some kind of project. I panicked, basically. Met this girl through a cousin—she seemed quiet, normal. We didn’t talk much, but everyone said it’s a good match. Horoscopes matched, she’s Brahmin, her family’s ‘respectable’. So we got married. Now I’m in Mumbai, living in a 1BHK with her and her mom. And it’s worse. She cries if I don’t talk to her for two hours. Her mom watches everything I do. I can’t even wear shorts at home. I miss my space. I miss being alone. I thought marriage would give me freedom from my parents, but now I feel like I jumped into another cage. I can’t talk to her—she takes everything so personally. And if I say anything, she says I don’t respect her family. I don’t even know who I am anymore. Is this what everyone just accepts? Am I supposed to live like this forever? I just wanted to breathe, isn’t it?