THE engagement was done. Family and friends had started buying dresses for the big occasion. Invitation cards were on their way from the printers. A 14-course menu was being planned for the wedding of Izhar Arman and Shabina Rehman (names changed).



Along came the global fiscal hurricane.

Now, Izhar and Shabina will not be husband and wife on December 12. In a terse phone call on Monday afternoon, Shabina's father called off the wedding, declaring he cannot entrust his daughter with a software engineer in the middle of this storm, say the guy's family. The father apparently is planning to marry Shabina off to a doctor a stable, old-world choice.

The groom-to-be, who should have been heart-broken, seemed strangely relieved at his would-be father-in-law's decision.

"The global recession has hit IT professionals hard. To weather the financial turmoil, many companies are firing white-collared professionals, while new jobs are difficult to find. In fact, the cancellation of the wedding has given me a chance to strengthen my financial position further," said 30-year-old Izhar Arman from Bihar and works for an IT multinational in Noida.

When MiD DAY tried to contact Shabina's father on phone, the conservative family refused to comment.
"If I had to marry next month, as planned, I would have lost three years' savings at such a crucial time. Now I am relaxed. Even if I lose my job today, I can survive on my savings till I get a new one," Arman said.

Fellow IT professionals support Arman. "When the marriage had been finalised in October, the financial recession seemed limited to the West. It's only now that we are facing it in India. With our jobs at stake, any new venture can be risky. A marriage can drain a person's finances. So it's good for Arman that his wedding has been called off for the time being," said Prashant Kumar Roy, a friend, who works with a Noida-based software firm.

However, Murugavel Janikiraman, founder and CEO of Bharatmatrimony. com, the popular matrimonial website, refuted that the current global recession has affected the Indian techie's marriage prospects. "The Indian IT groom has not been affected much by this financial tsunami," he said.

"However, NRI weddings have taken a hit, though the reason for this has to do more with equal pay packages of professionals working in the West and India. The recent murders in NRI families too have prompted many girls to opt for Indian grooms."