Site promises marriage, not flings

Shaadi.com is the only Indian-specific marriage website with a presence in NZ.

An Indian marriage website which claims to have led to 500,000 weddings worldwide has been launched in New Zealand.

The website, shaadi.com, is a matrimonial site, not a dating website, with headquarters in the United States, Dubai and India. The word "shaadi" is Hindi for wedding.

"Life is not complete until you marry - that's the belief in our eastern cultures," says Sheetal Walia, who with husband Harpreet Singh Walia runs the local franchise which launched this week. "But as more people start moving out of their home countries and establishing themselves overseas, meeting prospective partners becomes difficult."

Vaibhav Gangan, Auckland-based editor of Australasian e-zine The Global Indian, agrees. "Finding the right match is a big issue."

There are more than than 62,000 people of Indian ethnicity in New Zealand, according to the 2001 Census.

Mrs Walia expects the site, which has about 8000 Kiwi members "actively looking for a partner" to gain greater popularity here with local promotion and support. Memberships cost from $76 for three months.

Although Kiwi Indians have access to various tailored dating sites, this is believed to be the only one to have a local presence.

It's also a tool for elders searching for partners for their children, says Syed Akbar Kamal, an Indian-interest TV producer.

"Many Indians and those of Indian origin - such as Fijian Indians, and South African Indians - use matrimonial websites because it is an expansion of the 'old auntie' network," adds freelance radio producer and doctor Sapna Samant. "Indians are obsessed with marriage - it is the national past-time."

The attraction of such sites, says Aucklander Vikas Rawla, who met his wife through shaadi.com, is that everyone understands the premise is marriage, not flings.

Members list standard details - age, height, education - as well as the specifically Indian details: mother tongue, horoscopes, and whether the subject is vegetarian, or perhaps manglik (an astrological condition based on time of birth which can have negative implications for marriage).

The site also asks members to list caste. Ms Samant says this reinforces social prejudices, "especially among overseas Indians who are more conservative and culturally insecure than their brethren in India".

Caste didn't matter when Mr Rawla and wife Supriya Sharma, both aged 31, met through shaadi.com. She was in India and he was in Auckland, but sparks flew in emails and phone calls.

From first contact to marriage took just 3 1/2 months.