Punjab finishing schools prepare NRI bahus - cross post

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Punjab finishing schools prepare NRI bahus- By Asit JollyChandigarh, April 19:

Finis-hing schools to train young women to strike the correct balance between

playing traditional Punjabi bahus and conducting themselves adequately in more

modern Western NRI societies are quite simply the fastest growing and hottest

new businesses in Punjab.The state's Doaba region, centred in the city of

Jalandhar, is home to tens of thousands of families with kin settled in the US,

UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Each year hundreds of prospective NRI

grooms return home to look for brides, and the preference is very clearly for a

traditional Punjabi girl capable of quickly also adapting herself to the demands

of life in the West.This definite partiality for English-speaking young women

appropriately proficient in tackling a life in Hounslow, Toronto or New Town in

Wellington has led to a virtual mushrooming of finishing schools, or personality

development institutes (as they describe themselves), in most of the bigger

Doaba cities.Jalandhar, for instance, already boasts about 30 such finishing

schools, including half-a-dozen that are "registered," usually through dubious

affiliations with little known but fancy-sounding institutes in Australia, New

Zealand or the West.Here, young girls very keen to strike a "good life" abroad

are put through crash courses which are touted to help improve their language

skills and personality. English is of course the preferred language and it does

not matter if your proficiency level to begin with is zero. Employing the

time-tested method of getting students to literally mug up key phrases and

sentences, the finishing school-wallahs promise, in just three short months, to

equip the young women to pass the IELT (International English Language Test, a

mandatory immigration requirement for many Western nations), satisfactorily

respond to a standard list of queries they could face during visa interviews;

fill out immigration forms during international air travel; follow street

signs; conduct basic banking activity; order food from a takeaway; and even, if

the situation demands, make a 911 (emergency) call.But what is even more

interesting is that most of the schools will not only help you speak the

language but will also ensure that you do so with a decidedly ridiculous

Western-sounding accent.Many of the finishing schools offer that extra edge by

additionally teaching their students an additional European language, usually

French. Now imagine the head start a prospective young bride with a smattering

of French would have when NRI grooms come wife-hunting each winter. A little

knowledge of the language of love, the gullible young women are told, will

disarm even the most discerning of men. Just think what they would give to be

able to say: "This is my wife from back home in the Punjab. And, bloody hell,

she speaks French!"Jalandhar's schools for brides also promise to give your

personality and outlook a complete "overhaul" through their own curious, but

indigenously designed, "personality development courses." The students learn

politically correct forms of salutation, table manners, remaining appropriately

aloof in public (minding your own business), all the way to tackling their first

encounter with toilet paper without causing an embarrassing scene.Interestingly,

most of Jalandhar's finishing schools are run by smart young couples whose own

strangely accented English requires several minutes of getting used to. But for

the young women who join them in the burning desire to travel and settle abroad,

or the often barely literate parents who have seen their neighbours prosper on

fat NRI remittances, none of this matters.Even the fact that in an increasing

number of instances NRI grooms have abandoned their unsuspecting wives and

disappeared with huge dowries, and scores of others have been exposed as

polygamists with one or more wife already in existence, has failed to deter the

young women and their families.http://www.asianage.com/Your use of

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