Here,I am a mid 20's guy whose all weekend conversations revolve around listening to his friends about the troubles they are having in finding their matches. I thought about it and came to the conclusion that this is nothing but a serious Operations Management (OM) challenge.
In OM lingo, there are two types of items: off the shelf items and made to order items. And, as you may be aware off the shelf items are standard, mass produced and very commonplace - one size fits all kinda things...whereas made to order are customized, personalized and very special.
Given the fast pace of today's world and chalta hai attitude, we are fast moving from special made to order items to ok types off the shelf ones. For example, I duly remember in my childhood, getting a shirt stitched was a whole week exercise from selecting and buying the fabric, giving measurements to the tailor and finally collecting your very own and special made to order shirt. Today, the world has changed - the guy enters a showroom in one shirt and comes out in another.
Given the fact that Marriage is generally only once in a lifetime affair in India, a wife should ideally be under made to order category - right? But, unfortunately, the high cycle time of 20-25 years makes made to order system an unfeasible solution (I would like to remain away from topics like men never grow old, second season etc :P). Hence, we pick our matches off the shelf - now in off the shelf system, the more shops you visit, higher is the probability of getting a better bargin, nicer fit and trendier look.
So, my friends get imbued with biodatas every night when their moms serve them dinner along with list of prospective brides. Almost every prospect is so known and familiar with credentials like - "yeh ladki apne pados ke ratan chachaji ke mama ki niece hai, dekho achchi jaani pehchani family hai, ek baar mil to lo".
And, this means your precious weekend evening (for which you had made extensive plans for hanging out with your pals) will get ruined in meeting some stranger where both of you will take first half an hour to break the ice.
On the other side, the moms of my friends are just getting tired of finding new prospectives for every weekend - just like the salesmen who has got exhausted after showing you first 20 shirts. This is what led to online marketplaces for match making like shaadi.com, bharatmatrimony.com etc.
They are so worried because their sons have made such a long laundry list of specifications for their to-be life partners that satisfying all the conditions in an off the shelf system is really challenging.
Wishing them all the best, finding suitable wives is really a tough OM challenge in some ways :).
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14 comments:
Hahah! nice way to look at it :)
You might also want to discuss changes in customer behavior and how the process is no longer a one way sale but a two way sale :)
Must say Muli, very well written and a very relevant topic to ponder on :)
Cant help relating with it. Specially the part of weekend getting ruined.
Enjoyed reading this.
-Sankalp
Awesome Muli!
Why don't you start coaching classes for girls(and moms) for betterment of your brotherhood :)
Interesting !!
Btw aren't all the matrimony sites promoting made-to-order wives. You know there are hazaar criteria you can filter on and choose :))
PS: You didn't mention your mom....aren't you going through the same phase as your friends :P
@ Riya : LOL
@ Muli : Well written, have to say this is easily the talk of the town these days :)
@ Narayanan: Thanks for ideas.
@Partha: Thanks, keep pondering :)
@Sankalp: wish you solve the problem soon.
@Riya: Don't think I can teach moms, regarding girls, if I am assured beautiful students like you, I am open for coaching :)
@Suryansh: That is not made to order, that is still off the shelf - it is just another shop with more number of shelves and floors.
@gohrniba: Thanks
@ Muli :yikes! What an insult Muli, I really don't think girls like me would need coaching anyway :P anyway, take it offline from here :)
Please also consider temporal nature of the problem. An off-the-self bride may become made-to-order after marriage or vice-verso.
regards,
monu kedia.
@riya: happy to coach offline :)
@monu: the post misses a lot many points, the topic is too complex :)
Intersting post with good dose of humor :)!! As you said the topic is too complex. Let's consider the fact that the girls here have their tastes too. Either sex can be compared with commodity only for simplicity sake of this discussion. The moment we see that the object, that a guy (or a girl! let me be gender neutral) is looking for, is independent to choose too; the problem becomes doubly complex!
Don't agree at all. Made to order means made from scratch, don't believe you can superimpose academics in relationships so easily
awesome post and very well said! searching matches for our sister at home and can very well relate to it
Moms are always worried, so are dads. Old systems of matchmaking are failing. New systems haven't evolved to an extent that they can be trusted. So, a responsible parent has big problem at hand, OM (operations Management) gets extended to OMG (oh! my god) particularly when the kids don't want to spend time on the problem (issue) at hand and consider it as a waste of another weekend!!
BTW, I suppose you are not married. Do you get proposals at Blogger, too? Keep writing. Very interesting blog.
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