Source: India Tribune
BANGALORE, INDIA, August 11, 2001: Software engineers here used to have their pick of brides in the very competitive arranged marriage market. No more. With the fall of the dot-coms worldwide has gone the premium formerly placed on the engineers. Said one engineer, “For the past four months, I have seen the majority of parents hesitating to marry off their daughters to a software engineer as they are not sure whether we will have our jobs next year.” One marriage bureau has a backlog of 500 dot-com professionals on its books. Said one manager, “Previously the information technology sector was hot, now brides are shifting to management guys, chartered accountants and company secretaries.” Returned engineers from America, having lost their visas with their company’s downfall, are facing the same problem in finding wives.