Matrimonial ads: “Love” finds its match!!

I remember when Babba’s any friend or senior from office used to come to our home unannounced, me and my sister used to act like the character Flash. In a moment, before uncle could shut the gate and come inside we would grab our pile of clothes and copies randomly scattered in the first room of our 2 bedroom house. One of us would open the wooden almirah and the other would throw all our things into it, making the room neat and immaculate within 2 minutes. This is because we wanted to put our best foot forward and that was the definition of the best foot for us that the house should look clean to Babba and his friend. Least bothered that there is an avalanche coming in our wooden closet.

Today as I read the Sunday times and came across the matrimonial ads the same feeling came to me. Most people categorise their requirements in terms of caste, and religion. Other than that there is then a demonstration of why the person is good enough for you to be considered a partner for life. These reasons are varied and quite interesting. Like, someone clearly in bold letters mentioned that their daughter is not just fair but very fair. Some mentioned their kin’s height, while someone else mentioned their weight. Now what if the tall person is also obese or the person mentioning their weight may not match with the other person’s height? Is that a valid question or am I missing the point? Then there were some with huge packages, huge enough to be mentioned in the 20-30 words ad. Some were working in US and mentioned which visa type they hold like H1B, L1B etc. Others mentioned that they are elite and have a high net worth, while others said they want partner from a cultured family! How do we decide who is cultured?

Because I am reading these ads only out of curiosity, I am questioning their choice of words. However for a person looking to get married maybe this is the first step of sieving out the people they want and not want in their lives. But are these ads many times also an appearance of a clean room while an avalanche is building inside their closet? I hope everyone do opens the closet to see and sort out the things orderly, instead of being buried underneath the pile of books, clothes, toys and what not. But apart from the comic strips I read in the paper, this was the second most enjoyable page. Byomkesh Bakshi rightly used to say that if you want to read interesting things in a newspaper, read the ads!