Love and marriage in Mumbai / Elizabeth Flock.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-316).

Prologue: Mumbai, 2014 -- Devotion: Maya and Veer, 1999 to 2009 -- Produce a child, and God smiles: Shahzad and Sabeena, 1983 to 1998 -- A suitable match: Ashok and Parvati, 2009 to 2013 -- Illusions: Maya and Veer, 2010 to 2014 -- Fire in the heart: Shahzad and Sabeena, 1999 to 2013 -- Skywatching: Ashok and Parvati, 2013 to 2014 -- In time: Maya and Veer, 2014 to 2015 -- Moving house: Shahzad and Sabeena, 2014 to 2015 -- The family line: Ashok and Parvati, 2014 to 2015 -- Epilogue: Mumbai, 2015.

"In twenty-first-century India, tradition is colliding with Western culture, a clash that touches the lives of everyday Indians from the wealthiest to the poorest. While ethnicity, class, and religion are influencing the nation's development, so too are pop culture and technology--an uneasy fusion whose impact is most evident in the institution of marriage. The Heart Is a Shifting Sea introduces three couples whose relationships illuminate these sweeping cultural shifts in dramatic ways: Veer and Maya, a forward-thinking professional couple whose union is tested by Maya's desire for independence; Shahzad and Sabeena, whose desperation for a child becomes entwined with the changing face of Islam; and Ashok and Parvati, whose arranged marriage, made possible by an online matchmaker, blossoms into true love. Though these three middle-class couples are at different stages in their lives and come from diverse religious backgrounds, their stories build on one another to present a layered, nuanced, and fascinating mosaic of the universal challenges, possibilities, and promise of matrimony in its present state. Elizabeth Flock has observed the evolving state of India from inside Mumbai, its largest metropolis. She spent close to a decade getting to know these couples--listening to their stories and living in their homes, where she was privy to countless moments of marital joy, inevitable frustration, dramatic upheaval, and whispered confessions and secrets. The result is a phenomenal feat of reportage that is both an enthralling portrait of a nation in the midst of transition and an unforgettable look at the universal mysteries of love and marriage that connect us all."--Dust jacket.