marry me

SW is back from the home of the zero. Probably a good thing as I would've ended up about 200kg if I kept eating as much as the food demanded. First thing: arranged marriages. As someone from a culture that doesn't go in for them, I find the idea of arranged marriages odd. In some ways I can see the attraction, mind you -- it takes one big decision off your shoulders and SW is nothing if not decision-averse. And as far as I know, arranged marriages don't fail any more than "love marriages". Wikipedia says this (among other things):

...many proponents of arranged marriages attribute near zero percent divorce rates to couple that have had arranged marriages (in contrast to a 50% divorce rate for their Western counterparts). In India, the divorce rate is very low, even in love-marriages (although for love marriages the divorce rate is higher than for arranged marriages). This is often attributed to the fact that couples who enter into arranged marriages (in contrast to forced marriages where there is a higher risk of domestic violence/dispute) are usually more "traditional" and less likely to forfeit a marriage.

Anyway, as died-in-the-wool Westerner, I found the Times of India matrimonial pages fascinating.


It was nice (to my eyes) to see that a lot of the ads included the words "caste no bar". Plenty still wanted people from the "right" caste, though --including my favourite by far. Different cultures etc etc etc I know I know I know, but EVEN IN THE CORRECT CULTURAL CONTEXT (people!) this guy wrote the book on shameless self-promotion (click on it for a bigger version).


Needless to say, I've already sent my bio-data, horoscope and photo.