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The only way to do this… with Family and God. Thank you all for your wishes and blessings 🙏🏼♥️🎉

A post shared by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on Aug 18, 2018 at 5:38am PDT

Many of you are still suspicious of this Nick Jonas-Priyanka Chopra pairing. I’m right there with you, in that I still really don’t know what to think. I would say it’s all some kind of showmance, but do either of them really need a showmance to further their careers? And would this particular showmance really do much to further their careers? So I’m left wondering if maybe it is real, and they really did fall in love or lust or something. I don’t know. But I do think Nick is being a good Indian son-to-be. Priyanka’s mom spoke to an Indian media outlet about the engagement party and roka ceremony and it sounds like Nick made a good impression on all of India. Some quotes from Madhu Chopra, Pri’s mom:

Madhu had given up on her daughter finding a man: “Priyanka has always been ambitious about her career and I was just supporting her and wishing the best for her, as a mother. I used to pester her, but in the last two [to] three years, I had stopped. I had given up. It’s all destiny.”

She’s now a big fan of Nick: “Nick is calm and mature. He’s a wonderful person and everyone in the family just loves him. He’s so polite and respectful towards elders. What more can a mother want!”

She doesn’t know when the wedding will happen: “They haven’t decided on a wedding date yet. It’s too soon. These are just baseless rumors. Both of them have work commitments right now which they need to finish. They will take some time to decide where they want it and when they want it.”

The roka ceremony: “My daughter knew I wanted a roka before the marriage, so she never said ‘no.’ I haven’t forced any of my thoughts on her, but I definitely want a traditional Indian wedding. That’s my only wish. I started the roka with a puja [prayer], which is important for me. I’m a modern mother but at heart, I’m quite conservative. Nick enjoyed the prayers during the puja. It was a new thing for him and he took it seriously. He followed what our panditji [priest] said, and chanted the Sanskrit mantras accurately. Both he and his parents [Kevin Jonas Sr. and Denise Jonas] did it beautifully. They are nice people.”

[From Us Weekly]

Marriage is still seen as the important and ideal for Indian women, although judging from what my cousins tell me, there’s a growing modernization in the middle and upper classes about marriage not being the sole purpose for women (my female cousins and I are all happily unmarried and our parents just have to deal with it). Indian women have jobs and careers now, and more and more, those Indian women don’t want to be tied down with a husband and their parents get upset about it, but there’s been significant loosening of norms and traditions. That’s my explanation for Madhu’s “I had given up” comment about Priyanka – Priyanka is 36 years old, and that means her mom had thrown in the towel about seeing her “spinster” daughter ever get married, and she had made her peace with it. Madhu’s glee is because her spinster daughter found a younger man who is respectful of his elders. This is the ideal situation for Madhu. LMAO.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Instagram.