Picture this: You are dressed to the nines, reveling in the razzmatazz of a swank wedding with your mommy, checking out the oh-so exclusive guests and digging into some lip-smacking starters. A middle- aged aunty, decked up in a gorgeous silk saree, accessorized with a toothpaste smile, walks up to you and your mommy and breaks into an animated ‘Hello’! Looking at you, she gives a ‘Oh my God’ expression and tells your mommy that how you have grown so much, you were only a baby when she last saw you and so on. And then its time for some regimented interrogation. It starts with –‘What are you doing these days’, quickly followed by ‘What are your plans for the future’ and you find yourself incessantly fielding her volley of queries. And then she throws her trump card question: ‘When do you plan to get married?’
Before you could answer her inevitable question, she turns to your mommy (as if dismissing your presence) and says XYZ are looking for a homely girl for their only son. As she goes on revealing more details about the ‘suitable’ boy, you find your mommy seemingly interested in the conversation thus making you feel a slight squirm of discomfort about the whole thing. You curse her (in your mind) for spoiling your mood at the do. You stand there puffy-eyed and dispirited and wish you had a magic wand that would make the pesky aunty vanish. As she trails off with a broad grin, you heave a sigh of relief.
All of us know them. Meet the matchmaker aunties, who wield colossal power as matchmakers in the lives of young men and women who plan to walk down the aisle or who fit into that ‘I do’ age. Not to forget their parents (especially the mothers), these matchmaker aunties have a profound impact on them so much so that the mommies end up succumbing to them. Whether it’s a wedding, a funeral or any occasion, you will find them snooping everywhere looking out for their ‘prey’. They are faster than the social networking sites and they relentlessly network with their clients- (desperate mommies with their single sons and daughters) and give them the required updates. That apart, they remind the 25-year-old and beyond girls and their parents that their biological clock is ticking, thus thrusting her agenda of “once they get older, they won’t get such a good proposal.”
Recently, a very close friend of mine chanced upon an annoying matchmaker aunty at a birthday party. After some introductory conversations and informal chat, Aunty dearest asked her with a distressingly beaming smile, “You must be 25, aren’t you?” My friend managed an unconvinced ‘err’ and forthrightly revealed, “No, I have just turned 28.” To my friend’s astonishment, Aunty dearest gave her a prized ‘OMG, You still didn’t get married yet’ look and exclaimed in disbelief, “Twenty-eight!” For a fleeting moment my friend felt as if she was a sinner to have crossed the ‘so called marriageable’ age limit. Sensing my friend’s uneasiness, aunty dearest hurriedly muttered, “I had a few proposals, but…..Anyways, I am getting late, I have to go.” She sighed and then came her words of comfort, “May God bless you and help you find a suitable match.” The matchmaker aunty sashayed off, perhaps, in search of a new ‘prey’, and in a hope of exercising her matchmaking skills.
