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Knotting for life

WEDDING BELLS
Last Updated 25 May 2009, 13:49 IST

Professional matchmaking isn’t a ‘meat’ market but a meet market. It’s finding the right partner without going through all the wrong paces and to all the wrong places. We broaden your options and narrow the field with a blend of science, magic, intuition, common sense, timing and luck,” say matchmakers in Bangalore who get couples to come together, tie the knot and (hopefully) live happily ever after.

Nandini Chakraborty’s company Marrygold helps young professionals find soulmates through an easy interactive process.This  involves filling up a form followed by an informal chat. Once introduced, the prospective couple first meet at a coffee shop followed by a series of dates.The whole process is discreetly monitored by Nandini. “My HR background helped me to fine tune my people skills and intuition. I don’t entertain horoscopes or religious and caste-based queries. I base my service on shared interests and compatibility. What started out as a hobby gradually developed into a fulfiling career,” she says.

B E Chandrashekara, a former executive director with KPTCL, always had a penchant for getting the right couple together for the purpose of matrimony. “I had an eye for matching people. It started as a hobby while I was working and then developed into a matrimonial service once I retired,” he says. “It started many years ago when a young bridegroom approached him with a request for a suitable match. During my morning jog, I stopped by at least five houses and made appointments for the boy to meet the young ladies at suitable intervals. He was successfully matched with one of them before the day was done and I realised that I needed to take up this activity,” he explains.

Popularly known as ‘Aunt Dotty’, Dorothy D’sa had made countless matches for over six decades. “Wife of the chief electrical engineer of the state in old Bangalore, she had a large social network and a charming personality, a combination well-suited to her chosen hobby,” says her daughter-in-law Harriet, who carries her mother-in-law’s legacy forward on a much smaller scale.

Dotty would spend hours writing letters each day establishing contacts around the globe and compiling data in her ‘Blue Book’ for reference.” She even got forms printed for personal profiling, pink for girls and blue for boys.  “Things are different now with young people connecting through the Internet. While I have details that people send me, I pass on the information and let couples work it out for themselves.The days of chaperoning and arranging formal meetings is long gone. My mother-in-law used to help many poor families get settled, even holding  engagements at home sometimes. Her reward was emotional satisfaction and till she passed on at  87, she would still do her match-making thing,” says Harriet.

Thanks to Duru Sadhwani’s efforts, several Sindhi couples have successfully tied the knot and settled down  across the world. “My daughter Poonam is happily settled in the Caribbean, thanks to her bringing the families in touch with each other,” says her father Mohan.

Shweta and Ramesh, who live in a temple complex and perform many of the rituals, also work out horoscopes and bring astrologically compatible couples together. “Since we have the horoscopes on hand, we often suggest matches and leave it to the families to decide,” they say.

“Sometimes others’ perception of what we need is clearer than our own and it helps get an objective experienced advice. After all, we are looking for life partners, not movie partners, dance partners or one-night stand partners,” says Sushil Raj, who says he prefers the personalised service of a matchmaker to the dicey information available on the Internet.

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(Published 25 May 2009, 13:34 IST)

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