Brides and Parents Back Home Get Picky as Economy Makes America Look Risky

Source: Wall Street Journal

Vikas Marwaha would normally be considered a good catch by Indian parents seeking a husband for their daughter. The 27-year-old software engineer earns $80,000 to $100,000 a year and comes from a family "of doctors and engineers," according to his profile on a matrimonial Web site.

But Mr. Marwaha works for a start-up Internet phone company in San Francisco. And because the U.S. economy is wobbly, that's a problem. Many Indian parents now are balking at sending their daughters to the U.S. to marry.

During a two-week wife-hunting trip to India in December, Mr. Marwaha interviewed 20 potential brides in 10 days. He says several parents asked him, "How has the recession impacted your job?" Mr. Marwaha says he assured them he hadn't been affected at all, but still he returned to the U.S. brideless.

Rahul Tamrakar, 32, a full-time consultant for International Business Machines Corp. in Chicago, has been looking for a bride back home in India. But he says prospective in-laws were worried that "consultant" was a euphemism for "unemployed." One parent asked to see his tax returns. He refused, and the talks fell through. Now, "I'm trying to meet up [with] girls who are in the U.S. already," he says.

Just marrying for money. Sad isn't it. Yes meeting up with girls in the US is a good idea. How about meeting up with a blonde! There's a concept! It always amazes me how culture and religion tie everyone's hands together.

Anisha Seth, 26, has been looking for a groom for two years now. But she feels "jittery" about considering nonresident Indians as possible options.

Ms. Seth grew up in Lucknow, a medium-size town southeast of Delhi, but now works as a financial executive in Mumbai and lives alone in an apartment. Ms. Seth is part of a wave of Indian women who have, in recent years, started working and living away from their parents before marriage.
Ms. Seth says that if she were to move to the U.S. or to another developed country, she might not get a job quickly and would have to be dependent on her husband for a while. While she's open to the idea of giving up her independence, she worries that given the state of the U.S. economy, a groom based in America might not be earning enough to support her. For instance, Ms. Seth says she likes nice clothes and would like to have a flat-screen TV. "Is he really prepared to provide the kind of lifestyle that I have right now?" She expects a husband to earn more than she does.

Clothes and a flat-screen tv aren't that expensive honey. That is your criteria for a husband? Clothes and a tv? Aiya!

Whatever happened to the saying 'short term pain for longterm gain'. If these parents wanted to send their daughters to America then this recession shouldn't change their minds. Do they think that the US will be poor forever? It's a giant elephant that will get back on it's feet. Even if a girl gets married tomorrow, it'll be a year before she even sets foot in America. By then it'll be much better.

I know an Indian guy from high school that had a very steady girlfriend. But then his mom made him go back to India for an arranged marriage. So he dumped his girlfriend to go back. The marriage didn't go through cause of some big argument before the wedding. So he lost two girls in a week.