Grooms/Brides Wanted
Monday, June 26, 2006
Seen in Hindustan Times, a 8 page pullout titled HT Matrimonials:Alliance invited for smart b'ful Punjabi Arora Khatri girl M.A. B.Ed 29/60/157 Delhi based established boy may respond at Box xxx, Hindustan Times, Mahim (W), Mumbai 400xxx.
Seeking match 35/182cm Punjabi Khatri Administration Prof. Family Australian Citizen well settled. Seeks working girl well presented & educated willing to settle in Sydney age 27 to 32 yrs. Visiting Delhi soon. E-Mail: xxx@xxx.com.au Call or Fax: xxxxx.
These ads were categorised into professions, religion, community or caste. The whole issue was like the Classified Ads in The Straits Times, only HT Matrimonials was promoting men and women looking for a mate.
On the surface, Mumbai seems like a really open and modernized city. But in fact, it is still surprisingly traditional.
Walk into any shop and you can see that most, sometimes all, of the people working in the shop are men. It seems that Indian men are still expected to bring in the dough while the women stay at home to look after the house and children. Even if the women were working, they are expected to go home straight after work to cook dinner and look after the children while the men may go for drinks with their buddies after work (not much different from Singapore, in this case).
In fact the inequality has caused an outrage in India. It seems that women in the Indian army are paid much less than their male counterparts and they are not allowed in combat roles.
Returning to the Matrimonials. So many people are still looking to arranged marriages to look for their mates, only, newspapers have replaced the role of the matchmaker. Even people with high qualifications and good jobs overseas look to their home country to find their potential wives or husbands.
One interesting thing about all these ads are that the girls are always fair, slim and beautiful while the men are tall and handsome. Are there really that many good looking people around? If so, then Bollywood would have a field day if they were to hold a casting call.