IT could well be the oldest profession in South Asia. No, not the one that conjures up images of Umrao Jan, but the one typified by the elderly aunt with a gimlet eye and paan-stained mouth who knows just about everyone in town. The matchmaker — immortalised through several incarnations in Hasina Moin’s TV plays — has been a staple of Pakistani culture for generations. In a society where opportunities for men and women to meet are limited or, in many quarters, frowned upon, families have often needed help to find life-partners for their marriageable sons and daughters.

A recent ad for a marriage bureau placed prominently in newspapers and on Karachi billboards illustrates that marriage is bigger business than ever before. The bureau in question boasts a well-designed website, a FAQ page, a newsletter, and a photo gallery with images of its corporate-looking office which, incidentally, is located in one of Karachi’s most expensive office spaces. Such an investment implies confidence in high returns. This booming business can be seen as a commentary on Pakistani society; migration has scattered families, which means the extended family networks are no longer as strongly established. And even though, as Jane Austen said, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”, it seems that he still would prefer one from his own culture.

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