Indian obsession with the "M" word - A 25 year old's dilemma

Hey there!
It's been a while since I crossed the fun "early twenties" and am now on the sacred junction, about to jump into the latter half. I call it "sacred" because everyday it becomes clearer to me how deeply the 25th year is associated with the holy matrimony stage in an Indian girl's life.
By the way, what's so "holy" about it anyways?
Do we really become sacred after the grand celebration?
Or is it just that it is a certification to have legal sex? Probably thats why it's called the "holy" matrimony.
Everybody knows you're doing it, but somehow it's too "holy" of a thing to say!
But, if anyone knows about your adventures or should I call it misadventures before you're married, it won't be such a holy sight.

Gawd...for all the "holy"ness in the world I wonder why are we so obsessed with "Marriage" as soon as we hit the big two five??

Maybe it's not always just us, it's our parents, friends, family friends, extended family, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieghbours, Mrs. Bahri who met me when I was 5 and never saw me after that....Everybody!!!
They are all suddenly worried about nothing but a simple title before our names! It should now not read a deplorable in-her-late-twenties "miss", but instead change to a respectable "Mrs."

But are we, the ones who actually have to get the title-change, really bothered by it?
Honestly, does it make that huge of a difference?

We wouldn't get an extra arm for getting married. Niether would the tax-commission spare us for doing the right thing at the right age.
Yea...probably the only good thing I see coming out of it is international travel. No more unmarried-girl-of-a-marriageable-age visa rejection.
The gifts that you get aren't that great or useful either (remember...they're bought by your parents, friends, family friends, extended family, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieghbours, Mrs. Bahri who met me when I was 5 and never saw me after that!)

If you have someone in your life that you love...great...be happy with him! If you don't, it doesn't mean that you're not fit to survive on your own two feet! Does it??
Then why marry?!
Why do everybody's questions about our health or work or life in general have subtle undertones of the same required answer...Marriage: Yes or No. (Mostly, they're not that subtle. Hope they were.)

Well, I'm 25 and a half, healthy, happy (if left by myself), doing well at work, socially satisfied and not married.
Does it make me less "holy"?
Yes?!
OK then...I think I can live with that.