A matrimonial ad from the Sunday Times of India, June 1,
2014 (which my wife brought back from a trip there), under the heading "Matrimonials – Wanted Grooms – General – Caste No Bar":
SM 4 Pretty hindu veg girl
5’6” born 07/09/1985 on the
day of Krishna Janam
Ashtami 03.35 am. wheatish
complexion MBBS pursuing
MD from Roosevelt Hospital
New York affiliated to
Columbia University dollar
60,000/- p.a. in first yr,
handsome tall teetotaler
NRI/HIB/Green card holder,
Dr. MD/Engineer preferably
MS U.S.A interested in
pursuing carrier in
U.S.A (New York) preference
to boy from defence family
background. Caste no bar,
sorry for ST/SC.
The spelling and abbreviations (some of which I don’t
understand) are all as in the original; I’ve omitted only the email address and
phone numbers that conclude the ad. This one is unusually long, but it’s one of
many matrimonial ads in several long, thin columns of newsprint.
I don’t mean to criticize the woman on whose behalf this ad
was placed, or the society in which all these considerations seemed important
to spell out. A lot goes into finding a spouse in any society, and the pathways
for doing so in one place will likely look quite startling to those in another.
All that I want to say is that there is a lot of human need
in these staccato words.
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