Marriages are made in heaven. So are thunder and lightning. People just don’t understand it. And that’s why they embark on a quest to get married. While luckier ones opt for love marriage, unlucky ones are stuck with a torturous process which most of you know as ARRANGED MARRIAGE. In case you don’t share my opinion about arranged marriages, then you should contact your enemies or friends who have gone through bride/groom hunting routine. I happen to know one such unlucky soul – Mr. Q – and I am going to write about his adventures of bride hunting for next few posts.
I happen to know him since school days. He was one of the quietest guys in our class. We were not good friends during school so don’t know whether he had feelings for any girl or not. After school came college and we lost contact. Later we came in contact with each other through Offline Orkut – Anand Bhut. Mr. Q was posted out to Bangalore working with one of the most reputed software company. I could see that he had smartened up a bit but he was still the naïve, innocent and nice guy from school.
In Indian parlance ‘settle down’ means having a ‘naukri’ and ‘chokri’ (job and a wife) both. So unless you have both, people say that a guy hasn’t settled down yet. Unsettled tag applies even if you are just stacking up currency notes or dating a super model. So technically my friend was not settled and his parents wanted to marry him off so that he would settle down. Just like SRS (System Requirement Study) done at the beginning of designing of new software, Mr. Q and his family sat down to chalk out criteria for the ideal bride. Once the criteria were frozen, hunt began.
For those who are not familiar with bride/groom hunting, here’s a little insight. Hunting is usually done at various levels. First level is formed of relatives and friends. Players at this level try to match a guy and girl from their social circle. This is the best method as the mediator knows both sides and is acting selflessly. Next level is formed of family priests. They happen to know lot of people so they are quiet helpful in finding a match. They might be interested in little ‘dakshina’ (simply put consulting fees) to fix you up. Final and currently popular level is formed by various matrimonial websites. These sites charge you a small fee and provide a portal where you can look out for a person who fits the profile you are looking for. They allow you to share pictures and chat with other members. Best part about such sites is that you can contact people spread across the globe. Only glitch is that you might not have enough information about the person you met on such matrimonial website. This is where people need to hire mercenaries like me.
