Fade up Bollywood music
N - It's the stuff Bollywood dreams are made of. Boy meets girl and true love conquers.
Case studycouple (with music still in background) - We just hit it off instantly. The first date we chatted for 5 hours.
Man - Marriages are made in heaven so maybe this time.
WOman - when I saw him I was like "I want him". (still music)
N - It's a tale of matches made in Cyber space.
Woman - marriages are made in heaven but internet made it happen for us.
But can love found through the internet really work for everyone?
Different woman "For middle class India, it's convenient. FOr the rest of us, I believe in love (laughs), not online."
fade down music
street sounds
N -I'm Rajini Vaidhyanathan and in this BBC programme, I've come to Mumbai India to find out more about the growing trend of people who are meeting their life partners online.
N-As a British Asian I've always been fascinated by the huge role marriage plays in Indian culture. I'm even more intrigued about what, if anything, the internet's done to change it. In many ways this is as much a personal journey as it is a journalistic one.
N - I'm at an age where the only topic among some of my relatives relates to why I haven't met Mr Right yet and what I'm going to do about it.
N - For my parents' generation, families played a big role. My mum was introduced to several nice boys by her parents and she met the best, my dad. Times have changed and more indians are making matches themselves, leading to a rise in so called love marriages and the internet can now play a large part in that process (background phone noise).
Music and ad "A lamp with a flame is like a marriage. Without the lamp the flame....." N starts to speak over.
N - My stop on this journey is Shadi.com, the world's largest matrimonial service. Shadi is the Hindi word for wedding. As it cheerfully boasts in its commercials, the companies been responsible for a million of them.
Background noise of ad with phone ringing "Hello"
N - Finding a match that traditional way in India is in many ways a box ticking exercise. As well as the "they must be handsome" requirement, families have traditionally sort out partners with earnings, caste and qualifications to match the good looks. Going online I learn, is no different.
Woman - "The structure, bodytype of the person, go for the complexion of the person"
N -So do you decide whether I'm slim, athletic or heavy or do I tell you whether I think I am
Woman - You tell me and then we have to look at you, I mean if someone like you (fade down)
N - Nirmisi Tamalini is taking me through the daunting process of creating an online profile. The first, and most important stage in the internet matrimonial process.
Woman - We have to be very subtle because we don't want to put incorrect information on the website. And then we put in the blood group because a lot of these people want to match the blood group also.
N - Blood group?
No - So people want to marry someone who has exactly the same blood type?
Woman - yes
N - How many people actually divulge that kind of thing.
Woman - everybody puts it, they don't have a problem....community...you're Hindi. And Caste?
N - Well I'm Brahman, not that I care at all actually.
Woman - Mother tongue?
N- Tamil
Woman - ok and now your income.
N- I don't want them to know
Woman - Yes but you need to put a figure.
N - So that's just a license for golddiggers isn't it?
WOman -but you don't need to put a very high figure
N - but then no one will be interested!
Woman - Yes but you're a lady so it doesn't matter.
N - So what's a good profile paragraph? What would you suggest? (typing sounds)
N - So you start with the education?
Woman - it's the safest
N - Really? Rather than likes traveling and films or whatever.
fade down interview as narrator speaks
N - My nerves stopped me in going so far as submitting my profile and besides I felt it didn't really portray the real me. I was surprised by how much this process mirrored the traditional arranged marriage. Specifics and even more specifics mean everything.
Sophia
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