For Matrimonial Purposes by Kavita Daswani
Published in Paperback (7 July 2003)
By Harper Collins
ISBN 0007160585
325 pages
Guide Price: £5.59
Reviewed by Lopa Patel
Rating: (3 flames)
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"Would you let your mother choose your husband?" this book asks the reader. Well if the experiences of Anju are anything to go by…. then perhaps she should!

Daughter of a well-to-do Mumbai jewellery merchant, Anju bides her time working in her father's boutique, while allowing the greatest calamity befall upon her family - that of having an ageing, unmarried daughter. "Who needs to be happy?" her exasperated mother asks her "Maybe he's not perfect, but at least he's like you….elderly-type".

Anju's younger brothers, barely out of their teens are already confirmed as the most eligible bachelors in town. But tradition dictates that Anju should marry first and so the great husband hunt begins. Forewarned by a birth-chart reader that many obstacles lie in Anju's path to blissful matrimony, the net is widened to include not only the "also rans" from their own city, but also the "no hopers" from any city!

After a particularly uninspiring encounter with Raju Asrani, a London-based accountant who agrees to marry Anju despite having an English girlfriend, Anju meets an Asian storekeeper from Accra whose wifely requirements include a girl who will awake at the crack of dawn, supervise three maids and a cook and operate a vacuum cleaner. 'Basically he wants to marry me to supplement this domestic task force' fumes Anju.

As an escape from the appalling sceptre of being advertised in the "Bridegrooms Wanted" section of the local papers, she turns the tables on her parents and flees to New York to further and further her studies. Initially living in the suburban hell of New York State with Uncle Lal and Aunty Vinita, she moves to the city and acquires the obligatory white boyfriend whom she meets in the all-American "lonely hearts" meeting place, Starbucks!

One can't help but feel that all this time, Anju is merely experimenting with love whilst still remaining a Desi virgin at heart. She takes up a supposedly "high powered" job in a PR company that seems to largely involve organising launch parties on the same scale as her mother's Mumbai dinner parties. Little wonder then that no one back home is interested in her new haircut, new job or the fact that she had to organise hors d'oevres for John Travolta.

'For Matrimonial Purposes' does not plumb the depths of Anju's psyche, simply because there is so little to plumb. A spoilt-little-rich-girl-without-a-husband from India merely becomes one of many spoilt-little-rich-girls-without-a-husband in the West. The irony is that unlike many others, Anju desperately wants to be married, and, most importantly, it has to be someone of the right background and wealth from the "global Sindhi network" that she inhabits.

Anju fails to sustain her relationship with Jeff, her white boyfriend, blaming the break-up on his inability to understand her "Indianess". One evening, just as they are about to enter a restaurant, Anju spots her auntie's friend dining inside and begs Jeff to choose another restaurant. Jeff wants a confrontation and Anju… well she just wants an Indian man.

After this episode, Anju decides to be more proactive and starts searching for a soul mate on the Internet. The author, Kavita Daswani has a talent for comedic writing and the descriptions of some of Anju cyber encounters are hilarious, although they may be far closer to the truth than I imagined!

Ultimately the tale comes to the anticipated cheesy ending, using the age-old Indian invention (?) of friendly matchmaking.

This mildly amusing book is funny in parts and all Asians will have at least one episode that they will personally identify with - be it the lengths that Anju and her mother go to remove the "grechari" (curse) from her birth chart, to Anju's prim and proper bride-viewing encounters. But I cannot help but think that a little more poignancy, and a little less of the "Mills & Boon" approach would have elevated 'For Matrimonial Purposes" out of the "chick lit" category into the mainstream market.

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