Well ... So should I be getting married sometime soon?? A lot of my relatives think so. Not that am kind of entirely against it. Not until I kind of felt very un-motivated or rather de-motivated after enlisting on this website.
Ok. So here we go. So how would you normally rate a website as being useful or useless? In my perspective the guiding principle would be the its usefullness or uselessness to you personally. And if I would have my way (which I ofcourse won’t) then I would never advise anyone to enlist or use this website for mattrimonial purposes- not because am still using it :) .
http://www.shaadi.com has been one of the most visited and most used website for matrimonial purposes by indians (atleast this is what it claims) and it kind of has some nice profiles if you sit and search in your jobless time- the way I sometimes did :). The free services include your searching some n number of profiles (with and w/o snaps) as long as you don’t want to contact them. Incase you do, then be prepared to pay. The prices range from 30 $ (which is what I paid) to 90-100$. Once you are a paid member, you could actually communicate with those whom you were interested in- but only once they agreed to the same.
This website also sends you regular e-mails about your matches (none of which I felt match me) and also has this fancy chat feature whereby you could chat to any member if you like- assuming that person is online. However there is a catch- you cannot initiate a chat as long as you are not a paid member. All said and done, if you are really desperate about your marriage then you WOULD BE a paid member. Becaue the free members can’t do much- atleast they cannot contact in who-so-ever they are interested in.
My experiences with this website have not been one of the best. But I really can’t blame this website for that. Looks like the girls I like (atleast the ones who I think I do) don’t like me and there is NO vice-versa :(. Well anyhow, I am kind of disgusted by some of the profiles that I could eventually contact. And one of those whom I contacted has finally convinced me never to use this website anymore.
I can sense your inquisitiveness regarding this experience and I would not hold it back. So this was one contact for whom I specially felt like trying a little more. On contacting the person am told that she is preety much willing and all- and that she doubts absolutely everything on my profile except that am a male (what the $#@%- why did you accept me and give yuour phone number then???) and blah blah blah. So things move at a snails pace until am convinced that this is not the right person for me. Guess what happens next?? It seems that the person whose profile I was interested in was this girls sister- about to get married in 6 months.
So here I have- another proposal from this girl regarding my intrests in her and all. This is not the only instance when I finally found out that the person I am dealing with is not the one whose profile is posted. Finally I gave up saying some bull$hit.
I guess the fact that you actually contact and are trying to aquiant yourself with a totally unknown entity is preety risky in itself and chances of cheating & deciet kind of outweighted those of trust and honesty (in my case)which is why am now totally opposed to this idea of marrying someone whom you find through this kind of a website.
Ofcourse I do not doubt the credibility of an arranged marriage- after all thats been in work for ages- what I do doubt is when you set the wheels in motion without even interacting with your potential partner in flesh and blood prior to your marriage.
And therefore I have given up entirely on these kind of websites. Back are my days where I could live freely (hasne khelne ke din :))) ) for sometime more unless I meet the one whom I will eventually marry. Not through some newspaper and surely not through this website or any other of the same cadre.
In the end, I would stronly discourage you from using any such portal- as long as you are not totally desperate for a partner. If you indeed decide to use it, then go for this one. Its after all not one of the worst.
After Word: AD 2009- An invitation to all of you for my marriage to XYZ (I sincerely hope that she has a better name). Guess where I found her??? Well if you guessed then do let me know- afterall I might try that option :).
Kindly rate the review if you read it and do comment incase you have time. Thank you for reading the review nevertheless.