The marriage sites saga

When it comes to marriage we Indians are still traditional- atleast in this southern tip of the country. Even among the ‘progressive’ families there is rarely a marriage borne out of love, dating. The process goes something like this- the boy/girl dates someone in high school and promises to live happily ever after. Then they realize at the college that it was a puppy love and decides to make a more matured decision. Throughout the college they come across some 8-10 suitable people to share the rest of their life with. They may end up living with the last one at the end. Or, as commonly seen, they ditch the last one after college and leave it all to parents.

The tough thing for the parents about arranging a bride/groom for the child is they may not be able to find the ‘right’ person soon enough. In the process the best age to marry off may pass away leaving the parents and the child in dire straits.

So the marriage sites come very handy to these poor souls. When I relocated to Ernakulam, I had to stay with my long time friend as a temporary solution. So he told me about this new trend. But the marriage sites don’t come cheap. It will burn a cool 5k bucks annually. And the religious denominations have started versions of their own to see the sheep in their fold doesn’t stray away.

But it’s not easy to simply put up a profile. Obviously people have exaggerated their qualities a bit to get ‘interests’. Blessed is the man who believes without seeing. So my friend fished out some beautiful girls. Sadly, his parents discovered that he has some minor defects in his horoscope. Now horoscope is the greatest villain in Indian marriages. Even the ‘madly-in-love’ dare not defy the horoscopes even if they defy their parents. My friend laments that he had to forego any chance to wed a beautiful wife and is waiting for the rare occurrence of a matching horoscope.

But he narrated the plight of another friend of his to forget the sorrows. This guy is short in stature, average looking and is not a high earner. He dreams of marrying a Miss India or someone with close resemblance. So every day he logs on to his profile and ‘expresses interest’ in every good looking girl. The next morning he finds out every one has turned up the ‘no interest’ flag. Out of grave frustration he hits the bottle that night and invites his friends to share his misery (everything on the house). The next morning he wakes up a new man and ‘expresses interest’ to a fresh set.

So one day he comes across an over aged girl with no job and hot looks. Now this was the chance to hit the bull’s eye. Apparently she must be frustrated like him, searching. He surely would fix this one. He ‘expressed interest’. He waits for a day or two with no reply coming. Surely this is going to work. Sadly on the fourth day she too expressed horror. He hit the bottle with a vengeance that night.