It is said not for nothing that marriages are made in heaven. Still young men like Sanjay Ghosh from Rajbari or Anik Khan from Natore can only harbour the thought of a bride from Brazil and Thailand respectively in their wildest imagination. But in the world of Facebook, the unimaginable happen. Sanjay and Anik needed not to fly to Brazil and Thailand for their nuptial tie with their Brazilian and Thai bride respectively. It is synonymous with the adage -- if Mohammad (SM) does not visit the hill, the hill will be compelled to move to him. Yes, not only these two young men, two other bachelors -one from Habiganj and another from Jhinaidah - earlier charmed a Brazilian woman and a American girl as much as they took all the troubles to visit Bangladesh and enter into wedlock with their Facebook fiancés.
Indeed, eligible bachelors with no outstanding backgrounds but as humble as a transport worker or a cell phone technician seem to be on a high demand. The other Brazilian woman with three children fell in love with a student and managed the consent of his family for the marriage. But the US girl indeed had to fight for her trophy Mithun Biswas from a village in Jhenaidah. She managed a job for the money to be needed for travelling to Bangladesh before marrying the man of her love.
All this sounds to be stories meant only for fictions. But Facebook and other social sites have started turning fiction into reality. From just a 'hello' the relationships develop into friendship and from friendship into romance and from romance into consummation of marriage. The world has indeed become smaller.
The appeal for Bangladeshi bachelors seems to be rising. Now what do the foreign brides find so attractive in young men here? There is the language bar. After all, none of these bridegrooms from Bangladesh know Spanish, English or Thai well. All they can manage is broken English. Even the Thai and Brazilian girls or women who chose to marry Bangladeshis courtesy of Facebook are unlikely to be fluent in English. To make a match, they at least need to convey the deepest of their feelings to each other in a common language. One wonders how they did so!
One of the reasons why Bangladeshi youths are found to be so attractive is their rustic and unvarnished simplicity. Unpretentious to the point of being naive, these young fellows may not have even tried to present any quality they possessed. And the absence of quality proved to be an asset in the eyes of foreign girls and women who are too tired of smartness and dilettantism to be duped. Or is it just a momentary craze, an infatuation for the unknown across seas?
Whatever it may be, it would be wrong to think that the girls and women have jumped headlong without making some calculations. As the 36-year old Supotto from Thailand elaborates that in her country polygamy has spread like a virus. So she was reluctant to marry. Once she got connected with 22-year old Anik through Facebook, she got what she was looking for. Her family consented to the marriage but Anik's family turned down the proposal at first. So she had to come the second time to win over Anik's parents. At last they gave the go-ahead to the wedlock. But surprisingly, the 47-year old Brzilian woman apparently did not face so much trouble in convincing members of her husband's family in Habiganj. How?
Like this answer, many more to a host of other incisive questions will remain in silence. Let's wait how they carry through -living happily ever after or otherwise.
