A Suitable Match

Marriages, some say, are made in heaven.

Not in this Day and age!! These days, marriages are made in community meetings, small shacks in busy market places, via the classifieds in the newspaper, and most recently, over the internet!!

Most people would take this as dating on the internet, and then maybe getting married to that person after they meet….. nay!

In India, people get married using matrimonial advertisements or descriptions, which they post on websites specializing in these services, and this information is shared with millions of people using them!

Via this method, one may find a “Suitable Match” online!

Weird, isn’t it?

For Indians, it isn’t.

This activity of finding a match for ones’ daughter, son or relative is considered a normal phenomenon, and a part of life in India. Every girl or boy needs to get married “before worthy matches are just not available anymore”, which basically means, before the age of 30.

Every applicant is usually “Convent Educated, Modern, Fair, Handsome, with a Wonderful personality, and of course, homely and with traditional values.

Most terms used in matrimonials clash: for example, modern, yet traditional…well, one might either be modern, or traditional. How on earth does one be modern, and have “traditional” beliefs?

Beats me.

An excerpt from a normal matrimonial “advertisement” on a website”:

The family:

“We belong to a well educated and socially respected family settled in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Our’s is a religious family, strongly believing in God. We are a family with a perfect blend of traditional values and modern outlook towards life”

This will enable a family looking for a bride or a groom to find a match they want.

These matrimonial advertisements include pictures, name, age, date, place and time of birth, horoscopes, astronomical issues, if any, etc etc.

The family background of an individual is very important, because in India, you do not marry a person, you marry their entire family (not literally!)

Most matrimonial advertisements are posted by the parents of an individual, and they describe their ward in the most excruciating detail possible (most of which is made up anyway) and try to hook uncanny and unsuspecting people who may get “enchanted” by the good “virtues” in the other “party”

I am getting too tired of this, I’ll write more tomorrow!!

Updates:

Now I did some more research on matrimonial websites, trying to find people who “meet my taste”.

Sadly, there were none. However, I did come across some interesting profiles of women, mostly posted by their siblings or parents.

The most interesting one is listed below:

She is decent, obedient, fun-loving n easy going. she respescts her elders. she is religious too. We want a decent boy for our daughter.

Now, what is an obedient girl? who does as she is told? who will cook, clean, pick up after and change moods on command? Now as far as i know women, that is nearly impossible. How can an “Obedient” person be fun loving? The only obedient “creatures” I know of are either dogs (to some extent) or cows? And ofcourse, the girl is religious too!!! Now isn’t that something to die for!!!! just like chocolate, or apple pie!!

Another interesting profile description:

My daughter is honest and believes in India family values. She has good sense of humour.
She is dependable and charming

Dependable and charming. Now what do I gather from this? will be available to satisfy every need? Usually when I think of dependable “things” they would be rechargeable batteries, automobiles, operating systems and cameras. I never knew that women may be categorized in these areas too.

This section of the blog will now feature extra information about what do usual terms, filtration criterion and other miscellaneous tags actually mean.

Until I search more……….

Family Values:

The nature of this attribute is almost always “strong” or “very strong”

I do not know what family values are. Does it mean that she wants to have children, and live in packs, like other people in this country, who have occasional tiffs, disputes over property and everything else, minimal privacy and possibly no views about whatsoever of their own.

This does not mean that I disapprove of such social entities, however, this is something that I would not prefer to be a part of.

Like this:

Be the first to like this post.

About this entry

You’re currently reading “A Suitable Match,” an entry on Food Whoring, Imaging and Biking

Published:: April 24, 2008 / 9:13 pm

Category:: Uncategorized

Tags:

odzer 4.26.08 / 10am

Deeptread, Indian “society” is primarily an agricultural society. India never really went through an Industrial revolution. This is a reason why finding a right match and producing heirs is still a priority for Indian people. This unfortunately is also a reason for the very high population in this country which puts a lot of pressure on the resources and the scarce infrastructure. Due to the lack of social security and the unwillingness of the government to provide it there is a lot of insecurity among the population in India and basically they are only trying to superficially fix their and their children’s life “as best as they can”. Unfortunately what they do not seem to realise is that it has never worked and will never work. The only thing that can change the situation is very quick, intense and massive economic growth.

Adie 4.26.08 / 7pm

I agree, Odzer, however, I believe that India is moving backwards, instead of marching forward(socially).
It is still not possible to find too many open minded people.
One of the reasons for this is the religious fanaticism which has plagued this country for centuries, and will continue to do so, until people learn to crawl out of their religious well, and learn to coexist with others.

Food Whoring, Imaging and Biking

A Suitable Match

Like this:

About this entry

2 Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

About

Recently

Categories

Follow “Food Whoring, Imaging and Biking”