Even as social media remained mortified over Netflix’s controversial reality show ‘Indian Matchmaking’, there was also a chunk that supported its host Sima Taparia, who became a punching bag for trolls.
‘Indian Matchmaking’ revolves around professional matchmaker Sima Taparia, who guides clients in the U.S. and India in the arranged marriage process, offering an inside look at the custom in a modern era.
Despite all the hate, Sima was lauded for her status as a self-made entrepreneur running a successful business.
But how did Sima find her perfect match?
Taparia took to her Instagram account and shared the romantic tale behind her “arranged marriage.”
Sima wrote that she met her to-be husband Anup only once via a family acquaintance before saying yet to each other.
She said, “It was December of '82 when we got engaged. Anup was still in his final year of graduation and I was residing with my family in Gulbarga, now Kalaburagi. Our families arranged for the match via a familial acquaintance and we met only once before saying yes to each other. It was only after the engagement that we began to have proper conversations on telephones.”
Sharing the hurdles that came between her romantic moments with Anup, she cited how communication was one hell of a task back in the day. “In those days, you'd have to dial 180 to book a call out of the station. The operator would connect the line after few hours only. We'd often stay around our telephones sneaking from our family's forever teasing eyes, waiting for the call. However, in January 1983, our romance on telephonic calls was cut short owing to the huge fire in Malabar Telephone Exchange. PCOs would take hours of waiting to get on a call. And the telephone at Anup's house was going to be dead for months until the line was fixed, said Sima.
She further added, “So we came up with a solution that everyone those days could go about in the absence of a telephone. Write Letters!! Anup and I used to exchange letters via post to make up for our calls. It used to take about 3 days for a letter to reach Gulbarga from Bombay and vice versa. And if our families would receive the letters instead of us, their teasing would never stop. Anup would often have to treat his siblings if they found my letters instead of him. But we never stopped writing.”
Sima also mentioned how Anup met her secretly by making an excuse of a college picnic. She stated, “Soon after, our whirlwind romance took another turn when Anup wanted to meet me. I was visiting my aunt in Pune those days. He made an excuse at his house under the pretext of going on a college picnic and came over to see me.”
“I was ecstatic. We sat over in one of those premium hotels by the station, probably Blue Diamond. We had our breakfast and spent some quality time together until the time came for him to leave. I was a bit teary-eyed to say goodbye to him. We continued exchanging letters until we got married later that summer. It has been 37 years since then but he still makes me feel as if we have just started all over again,” she added.
