Questing for a match

The Indian societal fabric is knitted together beautifully like a spider’s web. Intricate as it is colourful, it can trap you and stick to a fingers quivering touch then there are people who ruthlessly tear through the fibre in their quest to stride over 100 years and leap into the abundance of the developed world.
I am often pinned down with situations where I feel like I have gotten hopelessly entwined in the web. Another such situation roused its ugly head recently.
A known fact in India is that a girl who has passed her puberty, teenage and is approaching young adulthood with lightening speed has to be mellowed down with the firm leash of a male companion. Of course, that means I have criminally escaped the saddle as I galloped over my first 25 years strongly withholding single-dom. This does not mean there have been no hurdles placed from time to time in an effort to deter these strides. Today, I relate to you another one of my such conquests.
I was gingerly handed the contact and background information about a proposed groom. His resume seemed impressive with several accolades and merits to his name. My only skepticism was out age difference of 6 years which I thought was a big deal.
After looking cursorily at his pics, I flashed back. I was a tiny pig-tailed 9-year girl prattling in lacy frocks when he has an awkward teenager dealing with pimples, facial hair and a shouting testerone. Imagine that for a perfect match! Makes me gawk.
Putting my over zealous imagination aside, I wrote a short mail on what I did, where I live, parents, etc. It was a 30-minute job interview Q&A session neatly packaged into 10 lines. But I made sure I did not offer enough info for him to derive conclusions, I divulged only leading details for which he would need to write back to get more details. Sure enough, he wrote back, directing me to his website with pics, et al in turn asking me to return the favour. I sent a pic taken a few months ago and cropped out the clutter of the background to get a clear mugshot. I considered it important that he know that unlike most girls from my community, I am a Plain Jane. The communication channel seemed to ease up as we exchanged Instant Messenger IDs and firing questions for want of better understanding. The going was good; although not great. With no real interest in hooking up, I took to chatting with him as novelty when you first meet friends, act and react at every point, scratch beneath the surface to grasp the undertones.
My work, goals and aspirations seemed to overwhelm him as he could not decipher why someone would voluntarily bend their backs with pressure. Exasperated, he said, and I quote -- "U know, I was thinking abt ur objectives in life and what kind of a life partner I'm looking for..... I'm looking for a homely person who's family rather than career oriented and I think that's the antithesis of ur dream. So am thinking we could be friends but I doubt we'd make a good match. Sorry to disappoint and be presumptous enough to think that u might actually be interested in having me as ur friend."
As I commenced ready it, the smile on my face broadened into a hearty laugh and nearly fell off my chair laughing. A good laugh is hard to come by, and this one deserved an audience; so I passed it on to my close gal pals who found him a wet rag. Incidentally an old chum of mine had worked under him for a while. When she read this, she was exasperated at his hypocracy. She had known him to be a hi-flier who is open-minded and has a broad outlook towards relationships and would prefer a career-oriented partner.
I sniggered. That's the kind of men they are. All of them. At the end of the day 'You don’t take bad girls home to mama!'