The certified shaadi makers
// January 22nd, 2005 // All
As certification companies run willy nilly around south asia offering ISO certifications to anyone cares enough to surrender greenback- some thing ridiculous was aught to soon emerge.
When shaadi.com became the proud owner of an ISO 9001:2000 certificate, this holy grail of perverse tragic comedy had finally been found. As the certification community applauded themselves at opening new horizons to a business model that had as yet relied on the much less exciting armament companies, such as our own Wah factories who’s grotesque Anti-personnel landmine adverts delineate the advantages of a maimed (as apposed to killed) enemy soldier.
More seriously though, its incredible to see the mushrooming of matrimonial services. They are one of the few working e-business models in desi-land (another isnt too hard to guess). The ‘missing women’ of south asia have made matrimonial services essential. To those that don’t spend their spare moments riffling through Prof. Amartya Sen’s books, the ‘missing women’ of south asia refers to the inverse gender disparity in south asia (especially india), where unlike the rest of the world, men outnumber women.
Its brought things to a point where almost all indian websites seem to be proudly displaying a shaadi.com banner, and the site now progressing to the slightly comical heights of being a proud holder of ISO certification.
I guess my point is- what does it prove anyways? Apart from making the whole exercise sound more industrial and impersonal, how does 9001 make for a better shaadi.com?
Another interesting recipient of ISO certification (and this just proves what heady times these are for the certification companies) was the now defunct (and with good reason) revolving restaurant in Karachi…
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