The programme Arrange Me a Marriage tries to use traditional Indian methods to finding that ‘special someone’, but for English men and women.
LONDON: British television has yet another reality programme, but this time the twist is very Indian! The programme Arrange Me a Marriage tries to use traditional Indian methods to finding that ‘special someone’, but for English men and women.
The programme takes one woman each week on a journey of discovering herself and what she and her family really want from a possible spouse in the hope of finding ‘The One’.
Aneela Rahman, a pretty British Asian marriage-broker from Glasgow, presents the show and is very forthright in giving her views obviously believing in the arranged marriage process.
“What matters is matching class, expectations, family and earnings,” says Rahman. For a culture that believes it is politically incorrect to even talk about ‘class and money’ when it comes to love, the idea that it has a bearing on marriage is horrifying.
Most men and women here meet potential partners in a pub, while out drinking with friends. Rahman, very obviously frowns on the method. “You wouldn’t buy a car or a house drunk, so why would you expect to find a partner that way,” says Rahman.
The first programme had Rahman trying to arrange a marriage for Lexi Proud, a 33-year-old director of a private jet firm, who was only “seven and half out of 10 happy” and wanted to get married.
Rahman first makes a list of the qualities that Lexi is looking for — which is endless — and then tells her family and friends to find suitable boys.
Interestingly Lexi’s demands make no mention of background or education, which upsets Rahman who insists that that it should play a vital role in choosing a partner.
Lexi’s mother and friends Andrew and Cathy embark on their searches. Eventually Cathy scores by finding two possible suitors. Rahman then takes Cathy and Lexi’s parents to meet the two men and their families — minus Lexi of course.
Yet again the culture difference is shown up when Rahman tells Lexi’s family to take stock of the suitability of the candidates by looking around the family home. “How can we go snooping round the house to see how much money they have,” says Cathy, representative of Britons who abhor intrusiveness.
After the families have been vetted, Lexi is finally given the CVs of the two finalists — minus photographs — and she plumps for Nick, the 29-year-old horse lover.
Rahman then organises a party where the couple finally meets under the watchful gaze of both families. While TV critics have called the programme “embarrassing” and “cringeworthy” because the Asian style search is deemed to be heartless, Lexi and Nick are still together after two months and look happy.
Apart from extolling the virtues of arranged marriages, the programme hopes to show a larger western audience exactly what modern arranged marriages entail and so take the sting off the stigma. This is one British reality TV programme which is unlikely to find itself translated onto Indian TV — that is because we have already done it!
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