Four months as a tourist is nothing, but i lived there for four months as an indian, in an indian household. My partner (defacto) had no shame about showing me off to his friends, family and society, we walked hand and hand in the middle of his small hometown ( and we all know small towns are a hundred times tougher in terms of  gossip etc) we held our heads high and we ignored everything and anything people were to through at us and his his family (wich to our suprise what not as  bad as we were expecting) I was invited to a hundred weddings, and my partner in the end was like my body gaured people wanted my signature and photo too, all his family were so proud to have me represent the next female in line. ( he is the eldest of all brothers and sisters and cousins) so what im trying to say is no one should let society dictate his/her future. I beleive in Love marriages, it is the gift from god to be able to naturally full in love and be in love, it has to be the best thing that life can bring! And if people are happy with the tradtional approach thats cool! but Love marriages do work. They really do!