Imagine every south Indian parents’ worst nightmare. No, not flunking the final college exams. Something worse, something more sinister, something absolutely unacceptable.

The online boyfriend. Even the serious kind.

Where did you meet this boy? What kind of a boy is he, that he is in an online dating site! Who are his parents? What about his past? What is he hiding? Does he have many girlfriends? How do you know if he’s telling the truth? And the questions go on!! Note: Questions on your own participation in these “online dating sites” will soon follow.

And these are questions from reasonable parents. For those of whom, who have parents who follow caste and ‘joshiyum’, may their paths to pain and suffering and maybe eventual break up, be a little less painful.

Would normal Indian parents accept a boy whom a girl met online. My guess is maybe, but not easily.

However, what I do find more ridiculous, is their easy acceptance of random men in online “shaadi” sites. More than half of these men, whom were “accepted” by my parents and passed to me, upon close inspection, were found to be disturbing and unrealistic.

Around 80% of the men in these sites, would have ticked the “does not drink a drop of alcohol” question and would look for a person with similar characteristics. Please note that their Facebook profiles would probably host a vast number of pictures of them, holding drinks of their own. Some say, they do this to get past the initial filtering done by Indian parents.

All of my statistics are for men that I find on these sites, since I am a woman. A straight one. It is more than possible, that there are some profiles of women on these sites, that are way more outrageous.

My point is this, dating, or finding an ideal groom or bride anywhere is a dangerous game. Whether the partner is found by you or by your parents. But we are still in an age, where the onus is on us, to convince our parents that the guy you’re dating is not all that bad. And maybe, just maybe, that’s not a bad thing after all.

PS: The author of this article is basing this on a hypothetical situation, where a set of normal Indian parents are introduced to a normal Indian guy. Found online. She is also 5’3” tall, a little dark, fit, earns reasonably well and hates making chapattis.