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Marriages are not made in ODCs


It is customary for me to receive requests for Certificates of Character and Credentials of Boys working in my organization  . It is always for the prospective grooms and never for the brides. Somebody who is in some way related to a friend or relative of mine will forward a lead like this , 'the name is Kartik and he works in your branch in Chennai'.   Looking for a 'Kartik' in Chennai in any IT company  would be something akin to looking for  moustachioed in Mallu land or  Pardanashin in Peshawar.    

In any of these big Indian IT companies, associates come together, often in virtual teams, for a particular Project and then dissolve into its vastness. It is possible to be working closely with somebody for months but without having as much as a glimpse of his/her face. 

I baulk at the idea of giving opinion anyways. Is it not better in these times to allow the parties concerned meet and work it out over a period of courtship rather than make matches thru 'proxy communication' over a  network with suspect 'quality of service'. But this is changing and quite rapidly too.


Before you are alarmed, let me assuage you that our IT companies are bastions of conservatism in today’s office milieu if you compare with the convivial atmosphere in Media/Advertising/telecom companies. It is as safe for the girls as ' the teaching job' of yesteryears. I often enquire with marriage-worthy guys if anything is afoot; the most likely answer is 'yes, PEOPLE at home are pursuing some proposals'.  The few who say they are committed, have mostly acquired their girlfriends during their college days or from OUTSIDE their PLACE OF WORK. No, Marriages are not made in ODCs.


Either way there is something that will never change, marriages are unnecessarily costly affairs and there is a mesmerising quality to the overall conspiracy to make you spend beyond your means. A love marriage without elopement is no money saver! I will vouchsafe for it.

PS: ODCs are software delivery office spaces designated as such in IT SEZs to avail of tax benefits under the SEZ laws.

'Proxies' are software programs that call another program normally residing in another machine across the network without themselves doing the job.

'Quality of service' is a term associated with networks to indicate the reliability of transmission of data.



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