This is a wedding arranged in India
"My family wants me to look for a wife just back to India," he told me with resignation and good mood Karan Gupta one day in the United States, where I met him when he did his master's degree in Business Administration (MBA) in 2016.
Three years later, in March 2019, Karan was waiting on stage for Vidhi Balasaria, her future woman, while she made her way in the middle of the 450 wedding attendees, held in Jaipur, in northern India.
The 12 kilos of her dress, more many other of her jewels - gargantillas with diamonds, gold earrings, red glass bracelets that adorned their arms painted with elaborate henna designs and rings with precious stones -, hindered the passage.
When he was finally in front of Karan, he looked at him with a certain relief.He pinched his cheeks, whispered something in his ear and they both released a laugh.
For a moment the guests forgot that this was a arranged marriage.
In India, arranged marriages are still common;that is, those in which parents choose the couple for their children.
Keeping and reproducing within the same caste and religion are the reasons why this type of unions still prevail.Cases are frequent in which the bride and groom are known on the same wedding day.
But more and more young people who ask for a courtship time, less family intervention, a more active role of women to choose their partners and not take into account social castes or positions, but love but.
Karan and Vidhi saw each other five times before committing.Everything happened very fast since he returned to his city, Bombay, after finishing his postgraduate.At 26, I was not in a hurry to return home.
When he arrived in India, Karan asked his family to meet his friends and soak up the family business, a successful logistics company in which he would work.
300 matrimonial resumes
They gave him the space while the parents armed and circulated the marriage resume with which the minor of the family was going to mark the step towards the stage of conquest, whose outcome would inevitably be the marriage.
The matrimonial resume is a letter of presentation that parents usually do in India with the biographical data of the children: place and time of birth;breed;hobbies;the name and education of grandparents, parents, brothers, brothers -in -law and uncles;family business;and even the character of the candidates.
The physical appearance is also important, so a recent photo, height, contexture and skin tone cannot be missing.
Karan mentioned her school in India, her business administration studies in Nottingham, the United Kingdom, and her mastery at Babson University in Boston.
"Delgado, intelligent and clear complexion," said the document, "their hobbies are diving, traveling and reading."
His father, Vijay Kumar Gupta, sent her to one of India's many professional marriage agencies that, crossing the information of thousands of people throughout the country, find compatibilities using databases that Tinder would envy.
Between father and son they checked more than 300 resumes of candidates to take the heart of this gallant.
Families in India of all social levels believe in marriages arranged for their effectiveness.
In fact, according to the analysis of the census made by the economist Surej Jacob and the anthropologist Srelromantic motifs.
But this does not mean that they are happy unions.In fact, not all women may report on divorce due to the stigma associated with this civil status in India, especially in the most conservative regions of the country.
Karan had 22 appointments.He went to have tea with the Bombay candidates, he met them for Skype and on one occasion he traveled to Bangalore, almost 1.000 kilometers, to meet a young woman.But things did not prosper.Until Vidhi arrived, the number 23.
In June 2018 they began to chat and two weeks later Karan traveled to Calcutta, the city of Vidhi, to meet her in person.A good coffee led to another appointment, one or another telephone conversation and a couple more meetings."She was the first woman I considered for marriage," he said.
Vidhi practiced Hinduism;He belonged to the caste Agarwal, the same as the Gupta;He was of a similar socioeconomic level;and shared parenting values.
His resume was also winning.
He went to University in Savannah, United States, then returned to India to work for an important fashion designer and now directs his own sustainable clothing brand.
His passions: sing, travel and write a blog about fashion.
But what closed the deal was the horoscope.
This practice, which consists in crossing the astral letters of two marriage candidates, is widely used in the country.
An astrologer did the test taking into account aspects such as progeny, longevity, emotional, physical and sexual compatibility of the two.
If a score of more than 20 out of 36 is obtained, it is considered compatible.More than 28, assures a happy marriage.
Vidhi and Karan took 34 points.It was a heavenly union.
"The best intentions"
Soon the Balasaria family began to ask about the young man who intended Vidhi.After all, it is the woman who leaves home to live with the man's family.
Karan then invited them to a lunch in Bombay, where Vidhi's father took the opportunity to ask Karan about his work, aspirations and, of course, intentions.
He assured him that he had the best.
"There are people who with just a few hours of knowing each other, you know that they are compatible.It wasn't my case, "Karan said.
They attracted, had fun, wanted to start a life together and had the approval of the families and the cosmos.
But it was, perhaps, the most transcendental decision.
One day, with an unusual courage in Indian women, Vidhi called him and told him that he chose him to share the rest of his life.
He was still sure, but promised to give him an answer soon.
A few days later, she finally received the call:
"I want to marry you," Karan said.
"Are you sure!?" Asked Vidhi.
"Completely," he said.
They had six months to prepare the wedding and get to know each other better.
They didn't know if they were for each other.What they did know was that there was a bridal vocation.
"I don't know love, but I have all the desire to meet him with Vidhi," Karan said.
The party was celebrated a few meters from a neighborhood of Casa de Tin, at a lavish Jaipur hotel full of gardens and palace in which the guests were lost.
It is that the one known as "The Pink City", the capital of the northern state of Rajastán, is a summary of India: contrasts that are lost in everyday life, the chaos of the pitos of cars and tuk tuk, and the streets fullof people selling belongings and food.
The inclement day temperature final.
At three o'clock in the morning, a propitious time for the Union according to the astral chart of the future spouses, the moon looked, as a good omen, lighting the two rookies who came out of the hand to the world clinging to the hope of love.
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