ulta pulta
Wedding woes
Jaspal Bhatti

Buying brides from far-off states and selling them to those who are desperate to get married is a thriving business in Haryana. The principal of demand and supply works here as well. Because of the continuing skewed sex ratio in the state, girls of marriageable age are going to be in even more short supply in the times to come. Earlier, we used to hear, "Uss ladki ke to nakhren hi bahut hain." Now we will get to hear, "Haryana mein to aaj kal har ladki ke nakhren hain."

When supply of anything dries up, fraudsters provide the rare commodity at exorbitant prices. An NGO recently unearthed a scam that a trio used to dupe grooms by getting a girl named Sonia married to them (one by one) for a price. After the marriage the girl would start throwing tantrums. She would then manage to wriggle out of the mess by leaving the groom in a bigger financial mess.

The situation is not any better in Punjab. If better sense doesn’t prevail and people continue to remain biased against the girl child, a day will come when Haryana boys will have to beg for marriage to Nigerian, Scandinavian or Russian girls. I remember a Pakistani skit where a groom after removing the veil starts shouting, "Cheating! Cheating! Cheating! The bride has turned out be Chinese make."

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