Hitched: The Modern Woman and Arranged Marriage (PAPERBACK)  | Released: 22 Aug. 2013

If you’re an Indian woman and old enough to legally bear children, chances are that an overweight relative has asked you, while fondly stroking their pot belly, ‘When am I going to eat at your wedding?’ The modern Indian woman’s attitude to marriage? and especially to arranged marriage? is a confused one. As traditional matchmaking methods and internet chat rooms come together to build matrimonial websites, our parameters have changed, but the time-honoured practice of arranged marriage sticks. Hitched explores in depth the considerations matrimony should involve, and the issues that can crop up at different stages of an arranged marriage. A cross-section of women?those who married young, married late, married the first man their parents parked before them, or married out of caste in an arranged setup?open up about experiences ranging from the frightening to the hilarious and the awww-inspiring.  About The Author: Nandini Krishnan is a journalist, playwright and humorist based in Chennai, which she still calls ‘Madras’. Her chief qualification for writing this book is that, for as long as she can remember, her mother has been taking her to weddings when she wasn’t in the mood to cook. Nandini’s chief motive for writing the book is the idea of being able to tell relatives who ask if she’s thought about marriage, ‘Marriage? Ha, I wrote the book on it!’ Her idea of an arranged marriage derived mainly from her family’s frantic—and failed— attempts to set her up with a ‘suitable prospect’ every time she was between boyfriends. That idea changed in the process of speaking to interviewees for this book. After dabbling in teaching, radio, television, print and online media, she wished she could get paid to watch movies, read books, speak to writers, and whine about the state of the nation. Thankfully, there is space for reviewers and columnists in the media, and her wish came true.