'Indian Matchmaking': Who is Sima's Mumbai match? From payphones to letters, a love story spanning 39 years
The notion of arranged marriages was introduced to the world thanks to Netflix's 'Indian Matchmaking.' And if you are looking for a successful example, look no further than Sima, the Indian matchmaker, whose tale of her own arranged marriage is nothing short of inspiring.
Along with introducing most of the world to the concept of choosing an arranged marriage over love, the program also offered reality TV its newest icon — Mumbai's top matchmaker, Sima Taparia. The Mumbai-based matchmaker became a household name when Netflix aired the series 'Indian Matchmaking.' Sima has become well-known thanks to several memes about her matchmaking abilities and her ongoing efforts to bring people together. Sima ran the dating show, finding suitable matches for her eligible clientele with just the touch of sarcasm the job demands. The 'Indian Matchmaking' celebrity shared how she met her spouse Anup through conventional Indian matchmaking too, proving that she practiced what she preaches.
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Who is Anup Taparia?
Sima on 'Indian Matchmaking' comes out as opinionated and, at times, retrograde in her approach. However, because she is an expert in matching people, she is sought after by the crème de la crème of India. Sima, who charges a high fee for her services, frequently complained that the participants in the reality program were not "flexible" or "compromising" enough. But it was a very different story for the matchmaker herself when she married Anup Taparia 39 years ago. The 'Indian Matchmaking' celebrity discovered her "suitable boy" at the age of 19 and a half, which at the time was "the right age to get married."
Sima discusses how her father's sister met Anup at a wedding in Mumbai on the Netflix series.“She told my father, and then we had a meeting for half an hour,” Sima continued. In three days, the boy's family said yes, and the girl from Gulbarga became "Sima from Mumbai." The Indian Matchmaking protagonist, who is now an Instagram verified celebrity herself, has opened up about her and Anup Taparia's arranged marriage in 1983.
Sima became an overnight sensation thanks to 'Indian Matchmaking.' The memes continued for weeks, and the matchmaker is alleged to have received thousands of phone calls in the days after the Netflix broadcast. Sima now has 83.4K Instagram followers (as of August 2022), to whom she has spoken to about her own matching experience. "It was December of '82 when we got engaged," Sima recounted. She explained that Anup was still in his final year of college at the time, and she was living with her family in Gulbarga, now renamed Kalaburagi in the Indian state of Karnataka. “Our families arranged for the match via familial acquaintances and we met only once before saying yes to each other,” she added. “It was only after the engagement that we began to have proper conversations on telephones,” Sima said of her 'arranged' romance. Sima recalls dialing 180 for an outstation call in the 1980s. "The operator would only connect the line after a few hours," the 'Indian Matchmaking' star continued. “We'd often stay around our telephones sneaking from our family's forever teasing eyes, waiting for the call,” Sima exclaimed.
“However, in January 1983, our romance on telephonic calls was cut short owing to the huge fire in Malabar Telephone Exchange (Anup’s local telecommunications system office),” recalled the Mumbai-based matchmaker. “PCOs (payphones) would take hours of waiting to get on a call. And the telephone at Anup's house was going to be dead for months until the line was fixed,” Sima explained. That's when the soon-to-be-wed couple devised a new solution: letters! Sima maintained her snail-mail connection despite the fact that it took three days for a letter to be sent back and forth and was occasionally intercepted by curious family members. Soon after, Anup, eager to meet his future bride, traveled to Pune to see Sima at her family's home under the guise of a college picnic. “I was ecstatic. We sat over in one of those premium hotels by the station, had breakfast, and spent quality time together,” she reflected.
The 'Indian Matchmaking' specialist kept up the correspondence by letters till she married Anup in the summer of 1983. Sima claims that despite the three decades of married life, Anup "still makes me feel as if we have just started all over again." The matchmaker, has two daughters, Ritu Taparia Bagree, the star of 'A Suitable Girl,' and Mridu Taparia. Sima's flashback tale demonstrates how communication is essential in every relationship, and distance can make the heart grow fonder. Her encounters on 'Indian Matchmaking' may have had little success, but Sima's throwback romance is a story worth sharing!
This post has piqued the interest of netizens since it was uploaded on the picture and video sharing app. It presently has over 9730 likes and several comments. What are your thoughts on this couple? Watch the matchmaker create magic on Netflix on August 10 for an eight-episode season premiere.