Meeting a guy in an arrange marriage scenario is nothing short of drama in India. The house is prepped up, a crash course in cooking is a must and the girl has to spend hours at the parlour to look her very best. The neighbours are also part of the big occasion and every relative has been warned in advance to not call and disturb during this auspicious time.
And when they actually do reach your home, it’s ShowTime again. Between the chai tray entries and numerous awkward questions, the experience can be quite nerve-wracking. Read through 10 of the most odd first meeting arrange marriage conversations and let us know if you’ve had any of these awkward experiences too.
Fifteen minutes into a conversation the guy asks me, ‘So what’s your name?’
During a quick conversation away from my parents, after the niceties were over with, he asks me what my favourite subject was. A bit surprised, I told him it was Math. His reply left me speechless, ‘Good. I don’t want my children to be bad in studies.’
I am from Mumbai and a guy from Bangalore flew down to meet me. I was excited but a few minutes into the conversation he told me they were a very traditional family. He continued, ‘My mom doesn’t leave her room when she is menstruating. If you join the family, you will have to uphold the family tradition.’ Tradition really!!
I was living alone in Chennai when a prospective groom called me and told me that he had checked my profile and he felt that we are made for each other. ‘We are meant to be together. I am the one who will bury you,’ he told me at 1 AM!
I had once met this guy who replied to my Bharatmatrimony profile. We decided to meet at a cafe where the conversation went something like this. ‘I am done with wine and women. Now I want to get settled!” Huh?! I didn’t even know how to react.
I had a guy ask me what suji is made of. Guess he was trying to gauge my cooking skills. Needless to say, I failed miserably.
I met this guy once whose father asked me, ‘What do you think about Bhagat Singh?’ I was quite taken aback and didn’t know if he really was referring to Bhagat Singh the freedom fighter or someone else. ‘Ok I will make it simpler, what do you think about the movie Rang De Basanti? Will you do what Aamir Khan did,’ he added. When I still didn’t answer he said, ‘What would you give first preference to: nation, family or yourself?’ Well yes, I ran away the first chance I got.
The guy called my uncle and asked us if we could go to their house to meet them. We went, and the one hour or so that we were there he asked me everything he could, including specifics about my job. Then he tells me he wants a bride from the IT industry only, since he was once engaged to a girl and she dumped him. Apparently, she was from a non-IT background. What the heck!
This guy, while dropping me home after a first meeting told me, ‘I’ve been in this house before.’ Apparently, he had dated my roommate for a while.
For once I was happy about meeting a family (guy included) who didn’t have the usual stereotypical issues with me working. By the end of the meeting I was casually told I would make for a better prospect had I been a teacher or a ‘desk job person’. Clearly, journalism wasn’t the faculty they had paid my fees for!
