…and thanks for your comments to my Desicritics.org article!
The friend who told me the story about “arranging” his own marriage also told us about his “reverse dowry.”
Apparently, he bought some land from his wife’s family as an investment. His wife cautioned him against this move, but he didn’t listen. It seemed like a good investment.
A few years later, he decided to sell the land. Since he was in the US, he worked through a broker in India.
He waited…and waited. But the land didn’t sell. So he called the broker to find out what was wrong.
“I can’t explain it,” said the broker. “I show the land, and the prospective customer seems interested. But then the next day, they stop returning my phone calls!”
On a subsequent trip back home, he checked on things to see what was the matter.
A little bit of investigating turned up the problem. His wife’s family were using the land and rather liked having it for their use. They weren’t too keen on having it sold from under them.
So, when a prospective customer stopped by to look at, they would say little things to deter him. Things like: “Well, you know that neighbor won’t help you if you need water.” They were able to scare off quite a few customers using this technique.
So he was stuck with the land.
He complained to his wife, but she would hear nothing of it. “I told you not to do business with my people. But did you listen? No!
“This is a matter between YOU and YOUR father-in-law. Leave me out of this!”
“So, I don’t have a dowry,” he told us. “I have a reverse dowry.”
festival, personal 
2 Comments 
Happy Republic Day!
…and thanks for your comments to my Desicritics.org article!
The friend who told me the story about “arranging” his own marriage also told us about his “reverse dowry.”
Apparently, he bought some land from his wife’s family as an investment. His wife cautioned him against this move, but he didn’t listen. It seemed like a good investment.
A few years later, he decided to sell the land. Since he was in the US, he worked through a broker in India.
He waited…and waited. But the land didn’t sell. So he called the broker to find out what was wrong.
“I can’t explain it,” said the broker. “I show the land, and the prospective customer seems interested. But then the next day, they stop returning my phone calls!”
On a subsequent trip back home, he checked on things to see what was the matter.
A little bit of investigating turned up the problem. His wife’s family were using the land and rather liked having it for their use. They weren’t too keen on having it sold from under them.
So, when a prospective customer stopped by to look at, they would say little things to deter him. Things like: “Well, you know that neighbor won’t help you if you need water.” They were able to scare off quite a few customers using this technique.
So he was stuck with the land.
He complained to his wife, but she would hear nothing of it. “I told you not to do business with my people. But did you listen? No!
“This is a matter between YOU and YOUR father-in-law. Leave me out of this!”
“So, I don’t have a dowry,” he told us. “I have a reverse dowry.”
Thanks for the wishes Jumper Bailey!
Lol! Poor fella! Guess he wasn’t lucky the second time around!