Marriage is one of the most sacred and pious social events of life in the context of Indian culture. It is solemnized to become a vital bond between the two marrying partners who are mostly two different human souls of opposite sex. It can thus fill one’s life with immense and perpetual joy or it can mean otherwise as well. It has in fact a cosmic relevance for the continuance of the mankind and humanity in the universe. The union of the two persons of opposite sexes makes the beginning or the commissioning of a new family. Marriage is a part of our culture almost since the creation of humanity. It is a socially approved union ship or relationship between two individuals of opposite sex, to call themselves as life partners after marriage. The family grows by the birth of the children, which is a direct manifestation of destiny. So marriage and matters related to it are destined or destiny related as per “Shastra’ s” and Vedic philosophy, which is the crux of the human existence. There is a well-known saying which says that the “Marriages are settled in heaven and celebrated on Earth”.

When Paige looked at Nick Destry she could hardly believe she was married to him! A successful banker, Nick was confidently sexy—but ruthless. He'd wanted a seat on the board, and he'd married Paige to get one. Paige decided to act as if their wedding was just a business proposition. But it was hard sharing Nick's bed. She decided he couldn't have everything his own way—if he truly wanted her, he would have to prove it!

Rather than being a source of joy, your marriage can destroy your quality of life, causing silent frustration and catastrophic disappointment. But every couple is entitled to a meaningful marriage filled with passion, intimacy, and shared purpose. The All-for-Nothing Marriage is a highly practical tool designed to help couples identify a path for achieving just those things. Drawing in his experience and a guiding faith, Daniel will walk you through the philosophy underlying his unique take on today’s marriage solutions with brilliant insights, personal reflections and practical advice to show how any marriage can be better. The book is divided into two intuitive sections: Part One explores the internal workings of a marriage; Part Two challenges readers to implement four practical steps to rekindle the core connection which results in phenomenal love and ultimate fulfillment in life. Here is a step-by-step strategies for neutralizing your marital problems with a redemptive mindset, one that will turn a mediocre marriage into a remarkable one. Here is a paradigm-shifting approach to recalibrate your expectations, increase intimacy and emotional togetherness, make the most of your relationship, live a better story and experience a meaningful life. Whether you are married, would-be-married, or, just looking for illuminating advice, The All-for-Nothing Marriage will forever transform your understanding of the anatomy of marriage, and the unique value you bring to a relationship that’s critical to so many people’s lives.

When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) assumed power in October 1949 China was one of the poorest nations in the world and so weak it had been conquered in the late 1930s and early 1940s by its neighbor Japan, a country one-10th its size. More than five decades later, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is an emerging economic, political, and major military power with the world’s fastest growing economy and largest population (1.35 billion in 2015). A member of the United Nations Security Council since the early 1970s and a nuclear power, China wields enormous influence in the world community while at home what was once a nation of largely poverty-stricken peasants and urban areas with little-to-no industry has been transformed into an increasingly urbanized society with a growing middle class and an industrial and service sector that leads the world in such industries as steel and textiles while becoming a major player in computers and telecommunications. All the while the country has remained under the tight political control of a one-party system dominated by the Chinese Communist Party that despite periods of intense political conflict and turmoil governs China with a membership in 2014 of 88 million people—the largest single organization on earth. This third edition of Historical Dictionary ofthe People's Republic of China contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about China.

Enter a world of Regency scandal with this dramatic marriage of convenience! An accidental introduction Takes them to the altar! Having lived at the Laycock School for Young Ladies since the day she was born, Emily Townsend thinks she is finally about to meet her father… Only to mistakenly arrive at the estate of dashing Andrew Gouldsmith, Earl of Breamore, instead! Determined Emily needs access to the ton if she’s to resume her search, and Andrew needs a convenient wife! But can their unconventional—and surprisingly passionate!—marriage survive Society’s scrutinous gaze?

"Vintage Lasch.... One of the refreshments of reading him is that he states his beliefs outright."—Andrew Delbanco, New York Times Book Review Christopher Lasch has examined the role of women and the family in Western society throughout his career as a writer, thinker, and historian. In Women and the Common Life, Lasch suggests controversial linkages between the history of women and the course of European and American history more generally. He sees fundamental changes in intimacy, domestic ideals, and sexual politics taking place as a result of industrialization and the triumph of the market. Questioning a static image of patriarchy, Women and the Common Life insists on a feminist vision rooted in the best possibilities of a democratic common life. In her introduction to the work, Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn offers an original interpretation of the interconnections between these provocative writings.

New Religions and the Mediation of Non-Monogamy examines the relationship between alternative American religions and the media representation of non-monogamies on reality-TV shows like Sister Wives, Seeking Sister Wife, and Polyamory: Married & Dating. The book is the first full-length study informed by fieldwork with Mormon polygamists and fieldwork with LGBTQ Neo-Pagan/Neo-Tantric polyamorists. The book tracks community members’ responses to the new media about them, their engagement with television and other media, and the likeness of representations to actual populations through fieldwork and interviews. The book highlights differences in socioeconomic privileges that shape Mormon polygamists’ lives and LGBTQ polyamorists’ lives, respectively. The polyamory movement receives support from liberal media. As reality TV has shifted the image of Mormon polygamy to one of liberal American middle-class culture, Mormon polygamists have gained in public favor. The media landscape of non-monogamy is mediated by, in addition to these alternative religious populations, the norms and practices of the reality-TV industry and by sociocultural and economic realities, including race and class. This book adds to the fields of media studies, critical race and gender studies, new religious movements, and queer studies.

Unconventional Muslim marriages have been topics of heated public debate. Around the globe, religious scholars, policy makers, political actors, media personalities, and women’s activists discuss, promote, or reject unregistered, transnational, interreligious and other boundary-crossing marriages. Couples entering into such marriages, however, often have different concerns from those publicly discussed. Based on ethnographic research in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, the chapters of this volume examine couples’ motivations for, aspirations about, and abilities to enter into these marriages. The contributions show the diverse ways in which such marriages are concluded, and inquire into how they are performed, authorized or contested as Muslim marriages. These marriages may challenge existing ties of belonging and transform boundaries between religious and other communities, but they may also, and sometimes simultaneously, reproduce and solidify them. Building on insights from different disciplines, both from the social sciences (anthropology, political science, gender and sexuality studies) and from the humanities (history, Islamic legal studies, religious studies), the authors address a wide range of controversial Muslim marriages (unregistered, interreligious, transnational, etc.), and include the views of religious scholars, state authorities, and political actors and activists, as well as the couples themselves, their families, and their wider social circle.

The Routledge Handbook on Women in the Middle East provides an overview of the key historical, social, economic, political, religious, and cultural issues which have shaped the conditions and status of women in the region. The book is divided into eleven thematic sections, providing a comprehensive guide to understanding the current and historical contexts of women in the Middle East, each giving ground-breaking insights into various aspects of women’s movements: The importance of historical context, including pre-Islamic through post-colonial histories The importance of politics and the state in understanding women in the ME Women’s roles in political and social movements The impacts of the formal and informal economies and education on women of the region Women’s spaces and the creation of publics and counterpublics The effects of war, displacement, and other forms of gendered violence Women, family, and the state Discourses and practices of religion Women and health practices Bodies and sexualities Women and sites of cultural production A unique overview of cutting-edge research in the key arenas of pre-Islamic to post-colonial histories, this Handbook will affect the way future generations of scholars engage with and add to the vast repository of socio-political studies of the Middle East. It will thus be of interest to researchers in gender studies, women’s studies, pre-Islamic and post-colonial studies, feminist studies, and socio-political and socio-economic studies.

Paragons of the Ordinary is about a quite extraordinary literary achievement: a series of biographies of obscure scholar-literati written by Mori Ogai, one of Japan's most prominent writers and intellectuals. Deeply concerned about the cultural toll taken by Japan's headlong modernization early in this century, Ogai employed the format of newspaper serialization in presenting meticulously researched accounts of individuals who had come to embody exemplary traits and traditional virtues. His unique project, undertaken over the period 1916-1921, resulted in nine interconnected works, the centerpiece of which is based on the life of Shibue Chusai, an all-but-unknown individual toward whom Ogai developed a deep bond of kinship and reverence, much like the sense of discipleship that Marvin Marcus holds toward Ogai. In exploring Ogai's biographical project, Marcus' aim is to convey a sense of its unique power and authority and to show how this power derives from Ogai's deft use of anecdotal episodes to highlight the exemplary character of his subject. Marcus places Ogai's work in the context of a long tradition of biographical narrative in Japan; at the same time he calls attention to the author's relationship to the contemporary literary scene and its journalistic orientation. Ogai's biographical works stand on their own as the unique artistic achievement of a giant of modern Japanese literature and culture. They also constitute a brilliant critique of a society that had lost touch with its traditional values. Marcus' reading of a literature often considered "inaccessible" or "elitist" will be relevant to the study of Japanese literature and history as well as to the craft of biographical research and of journalistic conventions that influence writers - in Japan as elsewhere.