Thursday, February 14, 2008

MATRIMONIAL

In the cyber era a conventional advertisement in the matrimonial classifieds section of a newspaper is no longer enough to find your dream mate Instead if you want to hear wedding bells ring replace cupid s arrow with your cursor and voila You have a match made in cyberspace The Net is no longer regarded with suspicion as a meeting and dating avenue but is more serious committed and thousands of people are tying the knot thanks to the new matchmakers in town matrimonial portals
And it is not just busy professionals who are e mailing or chatting with prospective spouses on the net but parents are also putting up the profiles of eligible sons and daughters on these portals So what makes online matrimony click better than conventional avenues of finding your match Well here are a few
The key advantage in these matrimonial websites is that they can be accessed 24x7 that too from any corner of the world Unlike a newspaper classified your advertisement does not get restricted to a specific region So you can contact any person from Chandigarh to CanadaThis is the medium of immediate results You can create your profile talk at length about yourself your family and hobbies each profile gets an entire page create your photo album and start receiving proposals instantly
Ease of communication is another reason why the net is an ideal medium for matrimony Unlike the print medium you do not have to wait interminably for proposals to come in but at a nominal fee can contact prospective matches via e mail and chat And the response time is also faster than waiting for the postman to ring your doorbell
You can streamline your search according to your own preferences contact the person you like accept or decline their proposals on your own terms And if you are shy to contact anyone then don t worry people who like your profile will certainly send you proposals
You can control your privacy level by filtering out the people whom you don t want to contact and even from whom you don t want to receive contacts Also you can contact or chat with a person without disclosing your details
Last but not the least the net is the perfect medium for people who shy away from an arranged marriage but have yet not found the love of their lives The net helps them to get to know their prospective spouses better even before the conventional meeting is arranged over teaAll this cannot be availed through an offline medium i e through a newspaper classified or a marriage bureau where the reach of the medium is limited and one has to pay even before understanding the pros and cons of that medium The advertisement will be of a few column centimeters and may not even catch anybody s attention You would also need to do some paper work in order to maintain a list of the people contacted

For those of you that don t know what a matrimonial profile is it is a profile created in hopes of finding a marriage partner Not a dating partner like most of the normal dating profiles
Many Indians use matrimonial profiles in lieu of getting an arranged marriage Many of the youths of India are starting to want more control over who they marry and are not shy in finding it themselves
The timetables for getting married varies across the board Some people join to have a rush marriage Others join to get to know friends and hope to have a click with one of them
Others are looking pretty seriously but do not even have intentions to marry for another 2 3 years It is generally understood that it takes time to find a love partner Probably about the average person would take about a year to find someone that they click with and love

Contacts are very brief and you can be expected to be in touch with a large number of people Sometimes you will exchange a few emails or phone calls and end the contact with each other instantly The reason for it is because the seriousness of the site A small difference in philosophy is enough to stop two people from talking Indian Matrimonial Sites have been around for a long time but have gained popularity only of late Their main function is to allow individuals or their parents to create a free profile for the intended groom or bride and wait for prospective responses Traditionally in the Indian culture this was accomplished through news paper adds but now with the coming of the internet a lot of sites have cropped up catering to this market These sites have taken on a dual purpose for Single Indians and their parents Lets first take a look at how the person looking for match for him or herself views it They post their add on one or more of these sites with the aim of meeting and dating quite a few people before they decide on who they want to settle down with The parents use in its traditional capacity which is to find matches for their son or daughter and then make a final selection very shortly after that The dating and getting to know aspect is totally ignored by the parents and is supposed only take place after the couple has taken the final plunge The interesting thing about this whole process how the Indian youth of today are trying to satisfy their own modern views of dating and at the same time keep their traditionally minded parents at bay as well as pacified How do they do this by informing their parents that they have joined a matrimonial site and are actively looking for a suitable mate for themselves They in fact are dating quite a few people an option that their parents would not usually tolerate In essence they are getting the best of both worlds The internet has been a god send for the Indian Youth of today The wedding is one of society s most valued traditions one that is honored worldwide and more so in India However in the present scenario while the quest for a prospective companion is getting increasingly demanding the time that is allotted towards searching for that perfect person has reduced to a great bit owing to those in the eligible age category focusing strictly on building their careers There was a time in the past when the bride and groom were pre requisites for any marriage The other paraphernalia surrounding marriage was decided only after this all important decision had been made However given the time constraints nowadays the bride and groom are probably the last things to be zeroed in on while the clothes jewellery venue etc are all sourced much before And that at present is the biggest dilemma of Indian Weddings To counter the obstacle posed by limited time Indian Matrimonial industry has gone through a revamp and the picture of a marriage broker with a huge diary tucked in with photographs has slowly phased out The latent need for a medium that would transcend spatial and geographical limitations has led to the rise of the Online Matrimonial Industry Shaadi com was the first company of its kind in this line of business and has been around for 10 years now Today the site enjoys the first mover advantage not just in terms of brand recognition and acceptability but also in terms of brand presence
What these online sites do is allow you to search for your perfect one from the comfort of your home and at a time convenient to you thus doing away with time spent on visiting relatives or prospective relatives homes to find an interesting match
In today s day and age convenience is the key word Online India Matrimonials site have successfully brought better matches better searches better tools and greater ease of use to users in their own homes and at their respective time
Shaadi com has tools like Shaadi com Messenger AstroSoulmate Search Shaadi Toolbar etc which have enabled it to today boast of over 10 million members and 300 million page views per month and over 8 01 764 successful marriages
The wedding industry in India is huge and has great potential however challenges like limited infrastructure and a largely unorganized market have limited the growth rate of this colorful and joyous industry
Yet changing trends seem to be indicating a positive future with the non conventional matchmaking mediums gaining wider acceptance
Also the basic mentality and approach towards these mediums is transforming Individuals no longer look upon arranged marriage mediums as the last resort to finding your partner rather matrimonial websites are now considered as a favored means of conveniently getting the kind of person that you have always wanted

No comments: