Marriages are made in the cyberspace
Published February 13, 2009 | Once upon a time, finding a life partner was a simple affair in Kerala. Typically marriages between first cousins or immediate neighbours were the order of the day. Marriages will be fixed by the elders in the family and very often the groom and the bride might not even see each other before they tie the knot.
Things changed when professional ambitions took the Malayalees to distant lands both within and outside the country. Soon, the responsibility of finding the life partner was shifted to the marriage brokers. All you need to do was to give a copy of the biodata and your expectations of the life partner to the marriage broker, who travels the length and breadth of the State to find the most appropriate match in no time. The broker makes his appearance at the crack of the dawn with his hallmark clutch bag held in his armpit, which will be stuffed with the testimonials, snap shots and biodata of his clients. He scratches his head and informs the motive of his visit to the bride’s father- he needs cash advance and pocket money to visit the boy’s place. He tries to hook the boy’s family by his exaggerated description about the girl and her family status and uses lavish clichéd expressions like the girl is as fair as milk and has hair that sweeps the floor when let loose and a million other things.
If the horoscopes of the boy and the girl are found to be matching the families make their visits to each other’s houses to fix the wedding date. The broker nets a handsome commission from both the families of the bride and the groom. Some business savvy brokers even calculate their commission as a fixed percentage of the groom’s salary package! NRI candidates or those with professional degrees like engineering or medicine are always in great demand in the marriage circles and the brokers often demand a higher fee for fixing such alliances.
Time have changed further. These days, malayalee marriages are done mostly through News paper advertisements or online wedding portals. The popularity of online weddings is due to the fact that it allows the groom and the bride to see each other and talk to each other even if they live on the opposite sides of the globe, with just a few mouse clicks!
Though arranged marriages still remain the most popular option among the youngsters, online weddings have made it possible for inter religious and inter racial weddings with ease for those who wish to choose their life mate. One can expect more winds of change to sweep the marriage field in the days to come where innovative wedding ideas and trends will play cupid in fixing the matches.
A Jewish wedding in Kochi
Published December 30, 2008 | Kerala is fast catching up the fancy of prospective couples all over the world as a trendy overseas wedding destination. Many couples who come down to Keralaprefer to have an exceptional Kerala wedding where the bride and groom don the Kerala attire and dress up like any other Kerala couple. However this Jewish wedding that took place on Sunday belonged to a different genre altogether because the groom belonged to the Jewish community of Kerala.
At present only around 48 Jews remain in Kochi as the majority of them have migrated to their distant homeland after India’s independence. The Jews who had originally settled in the ancient port of Cranganore, were forced to flee to escape the Portuguese onslaught during the 14th century. It was then the Cochin Maharaja offered land in Mattancherry, where they constructed a synagogue in 1568.
This Jewish wedding brought back nostalgic memories for many Cochinites as the city woke up on Sunday to a long cherished Jewish wedding, which took place after almost two decades. In the Paradesi Synagogue in the old Jewish town in Mattancherry, Solomon and Susan were united in marriage on Sunday at 5.30 p.m. Only a select gathering of guests were allowed to witness this wedding, which was held behind closed doors amidst very tight security in the wake of the recent terror strikes in the Jewish installations in Mumbai.
The marriage was conducted as per the Jewish customs. Nine candles to denote the ninth day of the Jewish Hanukkah festival were lit and the blessing in Aramaic was read out, which is something exceptional to Kochi Jews. The guests applauded when the groom slipped the wine-soaked wedding ring on the bride’s finger, which was followed by the unique ritual of breaking a wineglass, which is followed by only Jews in Kerala to denote the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. This wedding was also different from other Jewish weddings in that it was the chief warden , Samuel Hallegua, who read out the seven blessings in Hebrew and not the rabbi.