Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh: India's Lonely Young Women and the Search for Intimacy and Independence

by Shrayana Bhattacharya

‘One day,’ she said, ‘a family had come to see me and made some nasty comment about my complexion. They said that all that hard work and travel to office was making me look dark and tired. They left, and I felt horrible. Usually, I would cry alone in my room. This day, control nahi ho paya and I started to cry on my mother’s shoulder. I think that was the day they decided to stop looking for a groom. They saw how these matches were always insulting my hard work and everything I had done in life. My parents loved me too much to watch me suffer. Something changed that day. Things became better with my father and mother. We decided that akele rehna theek hai.’