US layoffs pose hurdle for Telugu men looking for bride: Report

Even if the families are able to find a match for their US employed son, the dearth of 'gifts' that they would ideally receive are making them skeptical

Finding a bride has never been this difficult for Telugu techies as their ‘employed in US’ label has always come quite handy to them.

However, the sure shot formula has seemed to have flawed off late following the US layoffs wherein hundreds of IT professionals are getting sacked as a result of the soaring inflation.

According to a report in The Times of India, several families in Andhra Pradesh are struggling to get suitable partners for their sons. The US employment tag that once enticed Indian families with daughters now seems to scare them owing to the widespread recession in the West.

One of the many such families is the family of the 31-year-old Vignesh Prasad* which is currently facing hurdles to get a suitress for him despite his employment being in California’s Silicon Valley.

Similarly, New-Jersey based Rama Raju*, an IT professional working in the US since 2017 feels that a US job is no longer the USP that it used to be.

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"When I did not want to get married, I was flooded with matches. Now, when I finally have a property and am ready to marry, my profile is getting rejected by everybody I approach. I still have a high paying job here but it is no longer a USP.”

Even if the families are able to find a match for their beloved US employed son, the dearth of 'gifts' that they would ideally receive are making them skeptical.

“During my elder son’s wedding in 2019, multiple families approached me with offers for my younger son. Both are IT developers settled in San Francisco. They were willing to give him acres of land along with cash. We couldn't go ahead because my son was not interested,” said Laxman Rao* whose son is currently a team lead in a tech firm.

Rao also added that “despite" him agreeing to bear 50 per cent of the wedding cost, “the offers have disappeared.”

The ongoing dry spell has pushed the Telugu-speaking states to consider inter-caste alliances as well, a norm that is often unheard of in those states.

(*The publication changed the names to protect the identity of the individuals)