The following poem, called the Gestalt Prayer, was printed on one of the coffee mugs
I picked up in a supermarket. It says:
I do my thing, and you do your thing,
I am not in this world to live up to
Your expectations;
And you are not in this world to live
Up to mine.
You are you, and I am I, and if by chance
We find each other, it’s beautiful.
If not, it can’t be helped.
This could easily be the philosophy of “live-in” partners. The last century has seen a radical change in attitudes towards time-honoured institutions like marriage. Living-in is catching on in our cities, and young people think nothing of moving into a free-love relationship, with no strings attached.
The arrangement goes by different names. Living-together relationships (LTR) are different from de facto marriages, which are merely Common-law marriages. Here, the man and woman call themselves husband and wife, though there is no legal license which seals the relationship. Like some of the liaisons in Bollywood, the public accepts them as husband and wife.
A contract cohabitation involves two people in a master-servant relationship. The master may be the man or the woman. A written contract specifies duties, salary, perks, leave, medical benefits and length of the contract. There are probably clauses, which deal with premature termination of the contract.
