The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama - Essay Example

The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama The idealistic cure for an empty head and lots of time in hands is opening a marriage bureau; well that’s what Mr. Ali does in the book by Farahad Zama. Set in modern South India, Zama narrates a very sweet and intriguing story of match making in India, with respect to different religion and castes. This hobby of Mr. Ali, in no time, flourishes with the help of his wife Mrs. Ali, but soon they are in dire need of an assistant, who is introduced in the book by the name of Aruna, a well-organized and intelligent girl with a dark secret and in search for her Romeo. This book very aptly describes different types of client with different requirements in a humorous way and uses the various Indian doctrines and the some prominent religion of the contemporary India to influence and shape up the characters of the book in order to wangle The Marriage Bureau for Rich People. Throughout the book, Zama has displayed generous details of both Hindus and Muslims rituals and their ideologies, which, more or less, falls on the same platform. After having the pleasure of reading the novel, it was easy to identify the doctrines and beliefs that are held by the people of India in a comic and chuckle some way. One set of dogma that is depicted in the story is the one based on religion and traditions such as morale teaching, upholding religion, family institution, community, respect for elders and patience. Whereas, the second creed that is been portrayed by Zama is based on politics and economic statuses. For, rich have different ‘needs’ than a poor. Furthermore, this book expertly includes and excludes complication that arises as a result of these ideologies. How do we know of these ideologies in the book? Well, Zama has deftly portrayed these doctrines in his book with the help of character’s thoughts and words. For instance, Mr. Ali clients sometime consist of wealthy people who have come to find a ‘specific’ type of girl for their eligible, highly educated and smart son. Most of the rich lot came with the hope to find a beautiful and equally or more so wealthy daughter in law, since for them marriage means transfer of money through dowry. For them the bride is the barter and their demand for dowry usually comprises of large amount of wealth, wedding cost to be bore by the bride’s parent and sometimes brand new and shiny car, maybe an Accord?. However, these snobs demand for a bride to be submissive and surprisingly, of poor or middle class, well not so surprisingly since, their aim is to take the girl/maid and make her do all the filthy household chores and to wait for their oh-so-good son on their hands and foots. These were some preview of high political and economic status people. If we move to the lesser wealthy lot, their theory of marriage is a bit different. These client’s usual notion of the bride or groom consist of decent, honest, simple, quiet, virgin and doormat material (not the groom). They also look for religious son-in-law, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law or brother-in-law so that harmony is maintained in the house, for the bride lives with her husband’s family. Once the above mentioned pre-requisite were met, for both the parties, then the dilemma of choosing cast and religion is been put forward. The above mentioned ideologies were not a figment of my imagination, but can be seen in the book that how these teaching influence the characters in the book. Starting with the main protagonist of the book, apart for Mr. Ali, is his assistant Aruna. Formerly she belongs to a rich Brahmin family, who after facing severe problems are rendered poor. Aruna is portrayed as a hardworking and an intelligent woman, who hold to the belief of respecting elders, religion and tolerance. Though she wants to tie knot with a wealthy and loving husband, she cannot fulfill her desire since, getting married means having a large dowry, which her parents are unable to accumulate. So out of respect for her parents and not trying to burden the, she suppresses her feelings and go on with the life. On the other hand, Ramanujam, a young handsome doctor and hero of Arun portrays the other side of ideology, or to be more specific not him, but his parents. The doctor is also from Brahmin family, hence here the matter is not complicated, but him being rich and Arun a poor girl arises difficulties in their love story, for his parents are ‘locating’ a rich girl to play the bride for their son. They believe to keep their socio-economic status stable and Aruna is not the girl to achieve that stand. Hence, they try to make Ramanujam back out from his decision. Then there is Mr. Ali, whose noble act of matchmaking is a result of boredom, but along this work he starts to employ his believes and ethics that is dishing out the lesson of morale and teachings of tolerance and love out to others in order to prevent the young hearts from breaking, especially in Aruna and Ramanujam case. He further strives to dislodge the negative thinking of his clients so that issues of socio-economic status and caste do not become a hinder in formation of relations. For instance, his ideology of strong family institution influences him to reconcile Shridevi, another client, to her ex-husband and even succeeds in doing so. By large, this book by Zama paints a glowing and radiant costal down and current marriage bureau manifest a flawless backdrop for impressive line-up of characters making meaning of all sorts of pride and prejudice and the way real love does not fades. Furthermore, Zama’s description of Indian people proves his love for the country and how he perceives their flaws to be only funny mistakes. In addition to this, humorously and affectionately describes the ideologies of the contemporary India and how it influences the lives of the nation. Work Cited Zama, Farahad. “The marriage Bureau for Rich People”. (2008). Read More