Anyone who says the institution of marriage is dying obviously is not talking about India. Marriage is seen as desirable by society and as inevitable even by young people who have doubts about getting married. Hence, matrimonial websites of all sorts are seen to proliferate. Endogamy is the rule and not the exception; with most people still wanting to marry within their caste groups. IIT IIM Shaadi is a service that promotes yet another type of endogamy:
Turns out, the guy offering to connect IIT and IIM alumni with others of their type is himself not from any of these institutions.
Some were of the view that if one was offering a service related to the IIMs and the IITs, that person should be personally connected with those institutions
People had some innovative suggestions: resume instead of profile, PPT instead of horoscope, merger, not wedding etc.
People shared some information about the founder of the website iitiimshaadi.com.
Here is a guy who saw a particular demand in the market and went ahead and addressed that demand. It doesn’t really matter where he studied, feel a lot of the tweeple.
People do get married based on shared interests, or because of desirable/ common academic backgrounds.
Karan Johar appears to be the brand ambassador for the service and can be found on the site’s homepage, folded hands and smug smile in place.
We are a clearly demarcated, hierarchical society – is it any wonder that there is a demand and hence supply of this sort of thing?
Not only do we have sites catering to all of these different groups wanting partners from within their own group, but we have ‘rates’ for various educational qualifications as well.
People with certain types of degrees benefit in the job market – in the marriage market as well.
As we know, endogamy is the norm in India and marrying outside of the social group or economic status is still very much frowned upon. With social and caste mobility still being so restricted, is it any wonder that we have services such as IIT IIM Shaadi?
Maybe sites such as this don’t actually divide society but they certainly cement the divisions that exist.
…Faangshaadi.com. According to dictionary.com, “FAANG is an acronym used in reference to the stocks of the five tech companies Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet” (Google)
This went viral last year – on 1 April for All Fool’s Day. iitiimshaadi.com however is not a joke. Some just wish it was.
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