Each and every noun and adjective of this matrimonial ad that appeared in the main edition of India’s leading newspaper ‘The Hindu’, recognizes our divided society and the difficulty in connecting the divisions.
1) It is the father who has applied for the daughter to get married, not the girl herself. The ad targets the boy’s parents and not the boy himself. Parents re-enforce the ancient habit of elders deciding whom the children should spend the rest of their lives with.
2) The girl is only 22 years old. At such a young age and fresh out of college, she would have no idea of the real world. A practice of traditionally conservative families, to get the girl married, as soon as she finishes her basic college education.
3) The Ad describes her as ‘family oriented’, which usually means she is an house-wife material and is ready to sacrifice all her career dreams, to take care of her husband and his family.
4) The girl is fair (colorism? Check. because we never see 'dark' being mentioned. Writing 'fair' is not to show the girl is fair but to indicate she is not dark.), pretty and the boy should be handsome (no criteria for 'handsome' here but since its a boy, anything will do). This rules out a huge majority of the Indian male community, even if their wealth can match this aristocrat and even if they can be better husbands, in terms of care and affection.
5) Even if the boy happens to be extra brilliant, handsome, well-cultured, highly qualified and belongs to respected and reputed family of high stature, his horoscope (a.k.a mumbo jumbo superstition) should match the astrological requirement.
(source for pic and part of the text: 'Indian Quotes' page on Facebook)
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