Tuesday, November 25, 2008

EAST OR WEST, FAIR AND INNOCENT IS BEST

I was looking at the matrimonial page in a leading NRI (non-resident Indian) newspaper and couldn’t help noticing a few unusual new additions to the sales vocabulary for young Indians of “marriageable age”. Or maybe these are not new around here although I certainly haven’t seen these terms before.

The parents of the girls describe their daughters' in usual glowing language. These girls are always “slim”, “fair”, “gorgeous” and one even said “exceptionally beautiful”. What they seek for their daughters is someone from the same religion and caste of course, but also someone who has a good “East West blend.” Haven’t seen that one before. . .


US citizens and green card holders are handed a clear advantage and if they are “into fitness” - even better.

Many of the boys’ parents also describe their sons with generous adjectives such as “fair”, “handsome” and one said, "charismatic". The son's wealth is nakedly mentioned
with the promise of even greater riches because he is invariably from an Ivy League school. But curiously, most of these wonderful sons are in the market to re-marry. Nothing wrong with that except that he is described almost as a victim since advertising a divorce raises a hundred red flags for most Indian parents. So, the new invention in the wedding vocab is “innocently divorced”! Have you heard that one before? I haven't.

The poor, helpless handsome, fair, wealthy son was innocently divorced by some wicked witch of the east-west. But thankfully, the parents can guarantee that the affair ended “issueless.”