Marriages are made in heaven, they say but in present-day India, the scene is ruled by matrimonial websites that charge a neat sum for memberships. I too had subscribed to a few websites to search for brides for my son and nephew.
It may seem strange to others from outside the country that arranged marriages exist but it is a very complex process. To summarize, I shall try to be precise and write about the process.
For example, Mr. Sharma wants a bride for his son. So, he registers in Shaadi.com or Bharat Matrimony. Then, he is asked to provide details of the boy and verify the same using an ID issued by the government. After a few days, the profile is verified and posted for the public to view. Mr. Sharma can then search for brides who meet his son's expectations. If he comes across a few profiles, he can shortlist it. Then, he goes to the astrologer and tries matching the horoscopes. If it matches well, he then contacts the parents of the girls who might respond or not. If both parties like each other, then the next step of a meeting between the boy and the girl is conducted using Skype or online calls as is the custom nowadays. If they find each other ok, then the families meet and decisions regarding the wedding are taken.
The above is what every parent hopes when paying the money to the website but in most cases, things do not go very smoothly. Many parents write down unrealistic demands and wait for months and even years to get the right match. People are less prone to give in to demands made by the opposite party and also do not think best for their children and in the end, settle for less for fear of missing out. Girls age quickly and as years pass by, it would be difficult to get a younger partner.
As I mentioned earlier, matrimonial websites have made the process simpler but the choosing process has been made complicated by the parents or guardians. There are also cases of fraud where people get cheated into marrying partners with diseases that they have hidden and with people who are unfit for marriage. So, it is the responsibility of users to properly investigate before making the final decision.
Most matrimonial websites do not offer free services. They charge a good amount of money for subscriptions and people are forced to pay for it. I wish I could host a website that can offer this service for free and make it open source or something like that but I am not an expert in coding and even if I could arrange it, there is the question of security because vital information such as contact number and addresses could be accessed by anti-social elements and be misused. So, I guess, it is better to rely on paid services for the time being and hope that they reduce the fee structure. I also hope that there will be a Hive-based matrimonial sometime in the future so that people can use the blockchain and thus embrace crypto in the process as well.
Shaadi.com - 1st matrimonial website in India. The popular ones besides this are Bharat matrimony, Jeevan Saathi, etc,
