The Instagram betrothal experience
The circumstances surrounding Agarwal’s death are a hark-back to sobering Shakespearean wisdom, the famous paradox, fair is foul, and foul is fair. Appearances can be endlessly deceiving. What looks happy and pure may also contain heartbreaking evil.
A modern love triangle serves as a cautionary note to inherent human hypocrisy. It turns out, whatever our decisions, they will come back to haunt us—in this lifetime itself. The creepiest part of the death of 26-year-old Ketan Agarwal, allegedly murdered by his fiancée, Siya Goyal, 22, and her paramour, is the tearjerking video she posted on Instagram soon after his death. Agarwal was serenading her with a gigantic sunflower in a car filled with colourful bouquets. The roof opened to reveal gorgeous stems above as well, and the lyrics of Aankhon mein teri ajab si ajab si adayein hain played romantically in the background. The footage moves to the (ostensibly) happy couple close dancing, in this carefully orchestrated, made-for-Insta proposal. (In the light of facts emerging, a chilling reminder of the frightening gaps between projection and reality.)
Time will reveal if Siya Goyal really shoved Ketan Agarwal off a cliff. But his sordid end points to the disturbing performative pressure around engagements, driven by the “For-the-Gram” culture, a puzzling phenomenon inexplicable to anyone over 40. Since I am of the age where many of my classmates and friends’ adult children are “settling down”, I often see highly staged, embarrassingly cheesy marriage proposals posted online. The setting will involve a pristine beach, the girl in a pale, gauzy dress with the man in smart linens, on one knee, brandishing what else but the predictable solitaire diamond. The hashtag will read #hitched, parents and other family members will gush and repost the congratulations. Weirder still is that many of these matches are completely arranged. The roka has already happened, but the families have hired fireworks, professional photographers and drone videographers to portray an entirely fictional, Hollywood-inspired, romcom scene. For what? To brag — on Instagram.
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