How today's marriages are made..Help for my Bachelor friends.

“I am fed up of living alone, doing my own dishes, washing my own clothes, cooking my own food, hmmm I think ‘now’ is the right time to marry”

This is the familiar voice of the mid 20 plus bachelors who live away from their families, hanging on to that dream job. It is ironic that these were the same cool dudes in college who preached about being out of responsibilities and enjoying the bachelor’s party every day! There comes a day, when the party is not fun anymore and life becomes a bore, challenges limited and the most basic of all, maids become expensive! Pizza’s and burgers are not cool meals anymore and the taste buds long for some home cooked food. The search for the soul-mate begins then!

The problem with the slow-starters is that by the time they realize the need for a soul-mate, they are left far behind in the race with a lot to learn. They just do not know where to begin! Some of them resort to matrimonial sites, which is by far a very lucrative business right now. These sites do build acquaintances, but in my own personal opinion, the success rate that can be attributed to making real marriages is much less than what is advertised. Internet can sometimes be an unreliable repository of false information that makes the task of filtering the correct information from the incorrect ones, a Herculean task. There is however, hope since the world still has some genuine people who also use the internet as a medium to build relationships.

The second option that some of them find amusing and sometimes beneficial is to have a closer look at the people they interact with, maybe colleagues at work, maybe friends, maybe some other acquaintances, sometimes even just girls at random. While this can be a good time pass, results are seldom achieved through these efforts. But not to lose hope, there are some successful marriages that come as a result of “just thinking a little more” about the girls they already know. Friends can be very helpful sometimes by creating that crucial link by looking out for suitable soul-mates for our bachelors’.

The last and by far the most successful of all efforts will be the ones that are put forth by the Dadi’s and Mami’s, Amma’s and Akka’s. They will leave no stone unturned, no marriage unattended, to look for that suitable girl for their “beta”. Their networking is so strong and their experience so vast, that they are likely to be successful in introducing our bachelor boys to their prospective brides. They do a lot of ground work before actually introducing the gals to the guys, so their method is time tested and seldom fails.

This is the true advantage of being an Indian, you don’t even have to take the effort to find your soul-mate, it comes ready made labeled “arranged marriage”. The name sparks a lot of opposition from guys and gals as youngsters, but when they are more mature and begin to understand that they could still use help in finding their life-partners, the concept of love after marriage seems agreeable.

The next steps, well, ring the bells, the wedding bells!.. “……….to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part.”

To all my bachelor friends out there looking out for that perfect soul-mate,… wish you good luck!