Dear Keyboard Warriors,
Indian Matchmaking, Netflix’s satirical series on the sad reality of ‘arranged marriages’, an idea that haunts a large chunk of us desi millennials, was something that I, very much like many of you all, found highly difficult to digest in the first go. It was downright patriarchal, glorified the ideas of sexism, colourism and superstition, and projected our culture in its most regressive form.
But the only question that kept drifting my mind back to the show and finally made me take the leap to finish it in one go was - no matter how cringey, disgusting and unacceptable it is, but can it be any truer? Indeed, it can't!
As somebody who has dealt with the nuances of an arranged marriage setup, I can vouch for the fact that the topics discussed in the process, right from the amount that gets credited into your account every month to all the mental, emotional and even physical ‘adjustments’ and ‘compromises’ you’ll be expected to make, are just as unsettling in person, if not more, as shown in the show!
No matter how hard to admit it is, but neither me or you can deny how perfectly the show mirrors the woes that young desi millennials are subjected to, only on the pretext of getting ‘settled’ well in time! Because let’s get real, no matter how nonchalantly I afford my house rent, biannual vacations or medical bills, am I even ‘settled’ if not married!
Also talking about the infamously famous Sima Auntie, as we lovingly call her, it has only disturbed me to see the kind of flak she has been receiving since the series released.
While I totally understand and relate to your quest for marriage and companionship, all while you struggle against the society to not let go off your dignity under the rosey disguise of a ‘loving wife’s sacrifices’, what really got me perplexed was how effortlessly you decided to shift the entire burden of your grapple to the shoulders of Mrs Taparia!
I would really like to know when was the last time you actually wrote open letters to a certain miss Kapoor for all the decades worth of sexist, colourist and superstitious content she religiously kept flooding our televisions with. Or a certain Mr Goswami for all the bullying, shouting and manipulating that he subjects people to everyday!
Maybe you even did, but then again, was it fruitful? Could it stop them? Certainly not. You ask why? Because they have an audience! An audience that forms their consumer base.
Let’s recollect a simple lesson from the Economics we learnt in class XII. The theory of demand and supply shows how the two elements of the market are related to each other. It explains how the supply of a product or service is massively influenced by its demand and that if demand keeps going down, the supply is bound to diminish and completely stop eventually. Conversely, if there is immense demand for a particular product, or in our case, service, the supply of it is not going to stop, irrespective of the ‘flak’ or ‘open letters’ it receives!
Now relating this simple lesson to our favourite lady in question, I would like to remind you all that no matter how familiar or your ‘chachi-maasi’ type Mrs Taparia appears through her demeanour, she is a fiercely market driven entrepreneur who has success stories dating back from the time some of you were mere toddlers!
She has studied her market, analysed her target audience and chiseled not only her product but also her marketing techniques effectively! She, infact, is a classic example of how smart, empowered and successful an Indian housewife can actually get.
Sima is not in the market for moral policing. Neither is she there to advocate the principles of feminism and equality. She is there to simply make a living out of her service of matchmaking and I think that exactly is what she does, quite brilliantly!
In fact, to second my opinion, we can go back to the scenes where her clients Aparna and Rupam keep reiterating the fact that Sima perfectly worked upon the feedback given to her and came up with some really good prospects that matched their vision. Now that's what I call professionalism!
And professionalism is what she practises! And it only surprises me how easily you come up with remarks asking her to give her clients a piece of mind when your subconscious clearly knows how battered your own spirit lies owing to all the tactics of your own bosses and clients!
Because the last time I checked, we definitely were a generation of demotivated youngsters venting out all our professional frustration through ‘work life memes’ - a millennial version of Sima’s sadly expressed quote - “Everything we have to agree, whatever the client says!”.
So the next time, you, just like me, feel motivated to unleash the keyboard warrior within and start penning down ‘open letters’ to people for a certain thing they do, definitely do consider what motivates them to do it!
As for Sima aunty, as long as she sees a vast Indian market comprising you, me and our families demanding her services, I’m sure she would keep doing what she does, like a boss that she is!
Best, A fellow Netflixer!
