Deranged Marriage

An affectionate, often hilarious, memoir of growing up in London in the 1970s in an Indian household, and avoiding an arranged marriage.'From the age of fourteen, I was aware my parents expected me to have an arranged marriage, a big Bollywood wedding. There was just one hitch: nobody asked me.'For Sushi Das, growing up in 1970s London was a culturally messed-up time. Feminists were telling women they could be whatever they wanted, skinheads were yelling at dark-skinned foreigners to go home and The Boomtown Rats were singing about 'Lookin' after Number 1.'While Sushi was fabricating intricate lies and plotting harebrained schemes to get to the pub and meet 'undesirable elements' -- boys -- her parents were on the hunt for a respectable Indian doctor for her to marry. But how do you turn your back on centuries of tradition without trashing your family's honour? How do you break free of your parents' stranglehold without casting off their embrace? And how do you explain to...