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A matchmaking with a difference
Over 60 hearing and speech impaired young men and women Friday took part in a matchmaking exercise of a different kind here.
Over 60 hearing and speech impaired young men and women Friday took part in a matchmaking exercise of a different kind here.
Men and women, some a little shy and few even scared, came one-by-one on the stage and expressed their expectations from their life partners.
The 14th Pranay Milan Sammelan (matchmaking ceremony) was organised at the Diocessan Community Centre at the Sacred Heard Cathedral.
Using their fingers to express, the participants put their thoughts across to the audience that they were like any other individuals and would not compromise if their life partners were not self-reliant and unable to support their family.
"I will only marry a person who is able to support the family well. The man should be working and should not be dependent on his family members," answered 38-year-old Sangeeta Goswami, who works at the Steel Authority of India Limited.
"We are looking for a suitable match for our daughter who works as a head clerk at the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), said Sharda Puri, who came to find a suitable match for her daughter.
"The boy should be a Hindu although caste is not of much importance," said Puri, who is a retired government school principal.
Dressed in a green coloured sari, 25-year-old Swati Kochhar of Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh said she wanted to be a painter so that she could express her thoughts through colours on the canvas.
Swati is a student in fine arts and received two marriage proposals soon when she came down the stage after introducing herself.
Gopal Motwani, a sign language teacher at the Bajaj Institute of Learning, Dehradun, also got a proposal during the function.
"We have been carrying this matchmaking exercise for the past 13 years and over 20 couples have got married through the ceremony," answered Renee Kuriyan, secretary Delhi Foundation of Deaf Women (DFDW), who organised the function.
"These are normal people and should get a chance to choose a life partner," wrote Kuriyan in reply to a question. She added that the organisation was working to make women self-reliant and give them employment opportunities.