Living at Home Part 2: No, please do NOT put my profile up on Shaadi.com

I have talked a little bit about the process of moving and living at home and some issues it has brought up. I haven’t in a while, but this article in the Huffington Post reminded me that my dad recently, concerned with my lack of romantic prospects in my life, offered, in the most friendly and optimistic way, to create a profile for me in indianmarriage.com or some such website like that. It was so amusing that I actually laughed, only to realize he was serious.
Although this article is about parents in India trying to set their children living in the US up with potential mates, it captures some of my same reservations, along with a brief discussion of mating practices in modern transnational South Asian culture.

Historically, evolution of matrimonial matchmaking in India can be traced to the late 19th century, said Rochona Majumdar, assistant professor at the University of Chicago’s Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations. Marriages arranged by family, both extended, or by the parent of the man or woman involved, usually were made on the basis of matching income levels, caste and the like. The process of finding a suitable partner went through many changes, said Majumdar.
“First it was through caste journals and caste magazines, gradually it moved to newspapers, now from newspapers to online sites,” she said.
Modern technology, however, highlights the differences in expectations of parents regarding the age at which they think their children should get married and the speed at which they take that step, and, on the other side, the children’s desire to take more time in choosing life partners.
“People who are on the matrimonial Web site probably want to get married soon, and I didn’t want to get married to someone I just met,” said Deokule.

Yeah, I am even more radical than that, I don’t want to get married at all. Plus, I don’t need one more social networking site to bog me down. Dating sucks we all know it and some feel they have to do it. I don’t really do it, that is not because I am against it, but because it is generally a waste of time. But I definitely don’t need my parents helping me out with it. Sorry Dad.

Join the Conversation