Sample questionnaire for arranged marriages: relevant to market research!

This thought came to me when my uncle entrusted me the herculean task of speaking to the girl they have shortlisted for my brother. The girl's parents had come up with the proposal after seeing the ad on Anando Bazaar Patrika. I was suppose to interview her, gather information ( data) and deduce the conclusions ( generate insights for my uncle!). .. market research humm...

I must say I was pretty excited as this was first of such experience , at the same time I was nervous as to what should I ask her.. The proposed girl is 4-5 yrs elder to me which made the situation further difficult..I did not know what to ask to gather inputs.. I was suppose to know the kind of person she is..why is she getting married late ( in our family all girls get married in the range of 22-26 yrs). is she willing to work after marraige...etc.however, after sometime I pulled in enough courage to call her..below is the conversation:

me : Hello..
the other line:( her father takes the call)hello.. who is this?
me: I am Mr. Das's sister who had come to see your daughter last Sunday.. I just called up to speak to your daughter, generally...
Other line: Oh is everything fine? has he not decided anything yet? I thought he told his parents he is ok with this alliance..
me: nono .. everything is ok ..( Oh my God.. her father is interviewing me instead...) You know that day my bro did not get a chance to speak to your daughter.. so I thought let me call her and speak to her.. could I talk to her now?
Other line: O ok.. lemme check if she is awake... ( 9 pm)... here she is, talk to her...
me :( thank God). hello.. m I speaking to Miss M? I m Das's sister who had come to see u last Sunday.. I am addressing you as "Tumi" ( tum) dont mind...just wanted to speak to you ( I finshed at one go!)...
Miss M: ok ..
Me: ( just ok.. not letting any data out???.. my God she talks so less that is my first inference).. achcha.. so you were born and brought up in Delhi?
Miss M: yes in Delhi
Me: Which school ?
Miss M: Kendriya Vidyalaya..
Me: Oh really… I also studied in KV
Miss M: is it? Which branch?
Me: ( thank God she asked me something…)In Tura, Meghalaya ( my inference …she must be strong in Hindi ..)
( Silence for a while )
Me: So what have you done for your higher studies?
Miss M: I am done my honors in Hindi ( I got it ryt..) and took nursery teachers training & now teaching in a nursery school
Me: Great ( inference: oh she is still working then…)! What kind of work you guys have to do?
Miss M: we have to do a lot of work…we make rhymes file.. maintain attendance register, take exams, etc
Me: ( at least she is opening up now..) ok.. achcha are you there on orkut?
Miss M: what .. yeah my parents are quite orthodox…
Me: Forget it.. she has not heard about orkut ( inference: not interested in news or current affairs..).. nono.. ok do you have an email id?
Miss M: No.. I don’t have ..
Me: ( Inference : she is not tech-savvy ! not ever the bare minimum! Bhaiiyaa.. bahut papad belne padenge sikhane mein ( my bro is into IT infrastructure management)…
Ok forget it.. so what are your hobbies? What do you do in free time?
Miss M: I sing.. I have taken vocational training…
Me: Great! Do u like movies? Who is your favorite ?
Miss M: Yes I like. Hindi Movies. I like Khans.
Me: ( inference : typical hindi movie watcher.. )ok.. have you seen Jaane Tu Jaane na?
Miss M: no haven’t heard about it!
Me: Oh !(inference: not updated at all! ) so you hang out with friends?
Miss M: I do have friends , but go out with tem usually.. I go out with my mom!
Me : ( hum.. family oriented ..”gharelu ladki”… mostly will suit my aunt..) ok.. what kind of person do you like to be your life partner…( I am running out of questions maan!)?
Miss M: I don’t know..exactly I cant tell you..
Me: ( let me give her a hint).. well I mean someone very romantic.. or very mature?
Miss M: yes.. definitely .. everyone would like those features ….
Me : ( what next? How can I ask why are you marrying late??.. well I can not this ! nope!) Wel.. so what else.. is there anything you wanna know from my bro? do you have message to pass on?
Miss M: Not exactly.. I am not able to think of anything right now…
Me: Ok.. if you have to ask anything just give me a call.. ok?
Miss M: ok.. will call.. chal bbye..
Me: bbye ( uff!)…
What an exercise.. and as soon as I kept the phone.. her dad called back to know what did I learn from the conversation… well what could I say.. “ no Uncle I just wanted to have a friendly chat with her”.. that’s it….

And the insights ? I called up my Uncle to Give the following insights:
1. She is very quiet and talks very less .
2. Traditional and Homely
3. Family oriented
4. Not tech-savvy
5. Might continue working after marriage
6. My brother will definitely have to do the decision making at home ( indireactly might have an upperhand.. good or bad??)

Nuclear deal toh ek bahana hai

I am sure all of you are aware of the political gimmicks going on in the name of Nuclear deal.. it has become less and less of issues regarding nuclear deal,more of a chance to bring the govt down, bring political unrest in the country and go for another election.. which would mean crores of untimely money expenditure.
Other day in tv they were showing a direct conversation with a MP and I could not beleive my ears when he said" this nuclear deal is against Muslims and hence I am voting against it".. what crap..gimme a break!
I am sure these jokers donot know what is the nuclear deal all about and neither they would have read about it. All is for political gain.. I strongly feel its for us, the people.. they should have a opinion poll from the public ..what do they want.. instead they are just seeing this as a chance to mint money.
Best would be to make these politicians stand in a queue and answer "tell me wht is this deal all about" and all of them to faint!

Jaane Tu ... Jaane na...( current update on me)

1. Current book reading: The Wreck
2. Gym routine: Concentrating on Cardio exercises & abs
3. Movies watched: Mithya
4. Engagement at work: Consumer Satisfaction studies
5. Humming tune of: Agarr main kahun.. mujhe tum se...
6. Food cravings: Strawberry milk shake, pasta
7. Last download: from esnips.com
8. Recent outing : to Chennai over last weekend
9. Salon visited: talking heads
10. Wallpaper on desktop: Dilbert comic strip

MTV Splitsvilla- hasinaoon ki laadiyan

These days I am spending some time late evenings watching MTV splitsvilla. Ekdum timepass....well let us review the show a bit. Talking about the girls.. I don't why they have taken Bosky in the show at the first place .. this girl is really irritatingand no one would find her hot! Meenakshi ( ahem! my name!) she is good but dumb as well... girly you have come here to win hearts of the lads..not to just bug the dudes with shero shayari...and finally she is out of Splitsvilla this week.. The show is all about the size zero and well toned girls here.. normal looking and average figure females dont stand much chance here.. take the case of Yamini.. she is a bit plumb and she has been called an aunt by that dud Varun! well.. well.. the search for soul mate has turned out to based on qualities like how hot you look.. how glamorous you are..

Well, the cat fights amongst girls are quite stupid.. seems as if they are trying hard to pull each other and call each other names..Prianca, though she looks a lot hot .. but look at her how she does fight...

Now, talking about guys.. MTV you should have at least spent some effort in finding some better guys.. these are job less and are not at all charming whom the girls can die for... that shukrun sa Varun.. he just knows how to snub girls! this is no way showing respect to a person if he is looking for a soul mate in her...Vishal is more or less fine par bolta hi nahi!

nevertheless, the show is a entertainer.. you can sit and watch it for sometime..... aur tv mein zyada kuch kya aata hai?
what are your views?

Wanna make your blog visible to google search?

Hi Friends,

I just started with blogging thingy a few days back and was really keen on showing off my blog to the world. So, I did the following stuff and and it really worked for me. thanks to some of the blogs which I visited for tips.

1. Submitted url to Google analytics
2. Added facebook badge
3. Submitted url to Digg ( this really helped)
4. Added email subscription by feedburner
5. Added counter from Histat
6. Submitted url to Google wenmaster and got it verified
7. Added metatag
8. submitted url to Delicious
9. Submitted to url to Technorati
10. Added adsense

All the above mostly involved adding a java/HTML script to your template

ladies towards size zero, nation towards tolerance zero...

These days you go anywhere, be it a new college, school or new workplace.. everybody tries to form gangs.. northi gang... southi gang.. people not allowing people other states to come and work ... what happened to our once secular and tolerant nation?? every time you look around, somebody is being chased by someone else and the vicious cycle continues...

why are we so divided? instead of being proud that we have so many languages spoken in our country...why do we complain about jobs being taken by other state people? isn't about competition.. about "the best man being the winner"?

We feel elated to the tunes of Chuk de India seeing how India beats other countries but its hollow inside..we can not be a winner till we rise above all these... again here also I can see the "law of attraction".. I can explain this.. I remember the dialogue between saif and Akshay khanna in Race. Saif tells Akshay," Tum hamesha haarte gaye kyonki tum mujhe hamesha haarane ki sochte rahe; main hamesha jeet ta gaya , kyonki main hamesha jitne ki sochta tha.."

and this is so true.. until we rise above all and think of winning as one nation without indulging into these petty stuff, we cannot be WINNERS in real sense!

So, Come on.. Rise Up!

The Secret ( contd.)

Well.. I just wanted you to have a glimpse of the dvd we watched....