Marriage is a crucial decision in anyone's life. In our part of the world, they say, its not just the girl and the guy that are getting into a relationship, but the two families of the girl and the guy that get together in a bond. There is a lot of thinking, investigation and physical contact that is carried out before the decision is made.

And there are Online Marriage Bureaus, websites that promise you the best match fixing if you opt for any of these. The deal is that you would find your match, all you have to do is pay some fee, that you otherwise would pay to the traditional matrimonial agents, spend some time on the website, find the one who is looking to find you, get to know them over the web and finally tie the knot.

Now the question I want to raise is about the validity of this modern idea of finding your partner virtually on the web. How good is this, what are the pros and cons and which of the two are on the higher side. The pros or the cons. Especially with reference to a close knit/ still traditional societies like Pakistan.

For your information, I have seen (I am sure some of you would have also) the Shaadi.com billboards placed at different locations in the Lahore city. Not sure whether they have a physical office here also, but they sure have started promoting themselves in this part of the world. Lot of their ads are seen now on the web as well and it was actually an ad by Google that made me think about all this, which brings me to another issue that I would like to share.

Now this ad that you are seeing with the buzz, is of Muslimica.com. There is the picture of this lady along with other information on her. So the question is, how far can it go ?

Do you think, the website actually took permission of this lady (whoever she is) before placing her picture and other info on the Ad like this, rotating it all over the world. And considering that most of these ads are especially targeted towards Muslims, is there any religious implication of showing off the girls openly throughout the web to attract audience for marriage. How many guys out there would be interested in marrying a girl who has been, if I may say, brought to the world market (as if for sale).

Your thoughts on this ?