The person should look like Imran Khan. Salary package needs to be seven figures and above. Should buy a six-bedroom apartment within two years of marriage. Sundays will be husband kitchen day.
These are just a few demands that are echoing across matrimonial sites and from prospective brides and their fathers. The tables have turned. Instead of the girls, boys are being grilled with numerous questions. A few are uncomfortable and awkward, while others are hilarious and funny. “Just imagine! I was asked to give my latest salary slip and bank account statement by the girl’s father,” says Fauzan Ahmed, a techie who has been working at a leading MNC for five years.
Then there is demand for ‘tall, dark and handsome’ looks. “I don’t expect a Katrina or a Madhuri to be my wife. Demands like, ‘The boy should look like SRK,’ are stupid. It reflects the girl’s maturity. Only a kid can have such dreams,” says Arhaan Behl, who plays the lovable husband Kisna in the daily soap Pratigya.
Not just looks, a fat pay cheque definitely seems to be the ticket to getting your dream girl. But for those boys who are in professions like acting, painting or singing, it seems to be like a WWE match in the ring. “There is this joke about us musicians. Whenever a girl’s family comes with a proposal they ask, ‘Achcha ladka gaata hai. Lekin kaam kya karta hai?’ I mean honestly, this is funny. I can’t do anything but just ignore and laugh,” says singer Javed Ali of the Kehne ko jashne bahaara hai (Jodha Akbar) fame.
The groom-to-be keeps wondering whether to go ahead or not. Most young men end up in a dilemma because they are madly in love with their wife-to-be and yet are targeted with such questions. “I would never consider such a proposal and would definitely walk away. I mean if the girl is so concerned with her man being an Imran Khan look alike, then let her go and marry the real Imran,” says actor Vishal Hegde.
Yet being gentlemen, they all bow down to the questions. The trick is in being smart, witty, intelligent and patient during such times. “The only way to handle such a situation is by being polite and positive and not over reacting,” says Kannada actor Yash. Way to go boys!