On Saturday, a producer friend of mine asked me if I was willing to come onto her show to talk about a subject that was somewhat close to my heart: arranged marriages. Not that I'm looking forward to mine or even necessarily willing to have one, the whole concept is something I've always been familiar with as its so rampant in my culture. And ever since I turned "eligible", its been my mother's main mission to get me hitched, ideally to someone of her own choosing.

I agreed to be on the show, partly to help a friend out and partly also because I felt that there are a lot of myths about arranged marriages that have given rise to misconceived preconceptions of it amongst my friends. For starters, arranged marriages today are no longer about being forced into a marriage against your will, only meeting your spouse-to-be on the day you are to be wed. Today, the concept of having an arranged marriage, at least in the "modern" sense which would apply to me if I were ever to have an arranged marriage, is that my folks would introduce to guys that they think would suit me and if we hit it off, then great, we'd all have a wedding to attend in about a year's time. If not, they'd introduce me to someone else and so forth, until someone stuck. To me, its almost an extension of how friends already try and matchmake their friends and it saves me having to scour the earth trying to find someone my parents would approve of.

However, its not all as great as it seems. I have come to learn that while your parents always want the best for you, they may not know what exactly that is. Their definition of "the best" may not be the same as yours. They may think that someone with a great career and lots of money is a good catch while what I'd look for is someone who listens to my nonsense and doesn't get irritated when I randomly burst into song. I want someone who I can curl up and watch TV with at the end of a hard day at work, not someone who expects me to massage his feet when I come home half dead from work. I'd go for someone who makes me laugh over someone who makes a truckload of money.

Anyhoo, the point of this post was that I was interviewed for a segment in a show about arranged marriages. The show had a story from someone who was really traditional and super exciting about being arranged and a story from someone who'd had a horrific experience from having been married off to someone she barely knew. And then I came in as one of the voices of today to talk about how arranged marriages today are not what they used to be. They asked some pretty personal questions and I was quite frank in my responses, talking about the attempts my parents had made to set me up (*cough*Sunny*cough*)and even admitting that my relationship with NG had soured partly because of my parent's expectations of having "the best" for me.

I never got around to telling people I'd be on this show, partly because it wasn't a huge deal and partly because I wasn't sure how I'd be editted on the show. I certainly didn't tell my parents when it was being aired! But all day today, I've had the most random people coming up to me and telling me that they saw me on TV. I couldn't believe they'd seen the show! People ranging from The Boss' secretary to my old friends from secondary school had caught the show as well as the CEO of the Firm, who'd seen it briefly in the Court's bar room and turned to ask an associate next to him "Isn't she in our firm?" Ack! Who would have thought I'd caught the attention of the CEO!! And of all the topics, it was about arranged marriages! This can't bode well for my end of year bonus prospects :S

Nevertheless, the fifteen minutes of fame has been fun. I get mildly embarrassed when people mention it but I know I have nothing to hide since my views on the show are the same as I'd always expressed in person.