At Shaadi.com

Anita Jain, 32, single, finds herself increasingly disillusioned with the dating scene in the Big Apple. After years of playing the field and dabbling in exotic relationships, she finds herself utterly lonely, looking for love and devastated when potential boyfriends don8217;t rise to their potential. Her parents, on the other hand, have been scouting shaadi.com for a suitable son-in-law for their 8220;Jain girl, Harvard-educated journalist, fair, slim8221; and cannot wait to see their daughter 8220;settled8221;. Jain, too, is beginning to get antsy and after much consideration, decides to return to the motherland, reversing a migration process that her father undertook when he was in his 30s. He went to America for better opportunities; she gives herself a year in Delhi, returning to find a husband.

Delhi, 2005, is a new city, shrugging off its imperial history carelessly only to embrace modernity wholeheartedly. Jain finds herself getting comfortable with the New Indian Men: much time is spent partying, mingling and singling out suitable boys but just like in New York, nobody wants to commit, nobody seems to want anything 8220;serious8221;. Not the Kashmiri journalist who cancelled a date only to be seen with another woman, or the younger Adonis she leaves phone messages for, or even the 8220;toothless unemployed man8221; she never hears from again. Hitting rock bottom, she goes the shaadi.com way, meeting suitors who want her to wear 8220;jean and top8221;, lie about their age and will not make her a cup of chai. Time is running out and how will she possibly find a husband?

Marrying Anita could have been a long self-pitying tome but surprisingly isn8217;t, thanks to Jain8217;s endearing tenacity to find the Husband. Engaging, witty, sharp and reflective, Jain8217;s memoir is as much about her never-ending search for a man as it is about the new New Delhi and its satellite suburbs, Gurgaon and Noida. Reeling under its stratospheric economic boom, the young and restless are imprisoned in glass cages, toiling for America in India, and as Jain whirls from one mall to another, she8217;s beginning to realise that while globalisation has brought more American brands to India, it has also brought its very American inefficiency to help people find each other in the city maze. Left to her own resources, Anita begins to understand and perhaps, even appreciate the age-old matrimonial networking in India.

But it8217;s not only about finding a husband, it8217;s about finding love, friendship, company and security. Most importantly, the reason why she makes her cross-continental journey is a need to belong. 8220;I look Indian, but I8217;m not8221;, a problem that will not be solved by neutralising her accent. Will staying back cement her identity and find her a mate? Love, possibly, has never been more elusive.