Modern Horoscope for Marriage Matching

I was thinking to write on this subject for long time. India is the land of arranged marriages. I know the pattern is changing in urban areas. Still majority of Indian marriages, as in my case, happens in arranged way. Traditionally when the boy or girl from the family attain the age for marriage, families will start looking for proposals from families of opposite kind. Among Hindus traditionally horoscope matching will be checked before proceeding with any proposal.

Here I am not willing to have a discussion on system of traditional horoscope. Here I like to present a different kind of horoscope which suits current generation and lifestyle. Along with all traditional things that you check, following things also you should check,

1. STD (Sexually Transmitted Diseases)
   
2. Check for impotency
   
3. Blood group matching
   

I know you got annoyed… What is this bull shit? How decent family can go and ask all these? Eh?

"Don't try to speak nonsense…"

"Ok, Ok cool down…"

I like to tell you, this is not at all nonsense. Let us discuss one by one. If you really love your son or daughter, you should check these.

STD (Sexually transmitted diseases)

HIV

I like to put this point at first, because it is the most important. I think AIDS is the most dreaded disease in our society. Still in our villages, if people come to know about infected person, they out cast him. It is cruel for one partner to pass on the disease to another after marriage. Imagine that you married your daughter to a person who is HIV positive. Then that innocent girl's life will get spoiled. All those dreams of an average Indian girl to raise a small family will be shattered. In this modern era where premarital sex is spreading, reverse case also possible. There is lot of arguments against the move of making HIV test mandatory before marriage. Human rights organizations are against it because they feel it is intrusion to one person's privacy. But I feel that no HIV+ person have right to hide that information and marry.

How decent people can ask HIV test reports to another family? I know it is difficult. I also not asked these details before my marriage. But at least I will not feel offended if somebody ask my family all these details before any marriage proposal. Let us make the difference slowly. At government level, they can enact a legislation to strengthen social awareness on this.

Hepatitis B

First itself I will tell you that there is no risk in marrying a hepatitis B infected partner. But if one of you infected, get the other one immunized with vaccine. This disease caused by hepatitis B virus. The acute illness causes liver inflammation, vomiting, jaundice and—rarely—death. Transmission of hepatitis B virus results from exposure to infectious blood or body fluids containing blood. Possible forms of transmission unprotected sexual contact, blood transfusions, re-use of contaminated needles & syringes, and vertical transmission from mother to child during childbirth etc. So if you are infected don't hide that info and get your partner immunized. Hmmn.. J You can do it after marriage also.

Impotency check

This is also very important thing to check before marriage. Recently I read an article about movement for this purpose initiated by yesteryear Tamil actress Manorama. She is campaigning against people marrying with knowledge of their impotency or HIV status. I like to quote her story about a family friend

""Be it man or woman, both of them must go through vivid check-up prior to their marriage and get certified that they're physically all right. Because, I have witnessed one of my close friend filmmaker's daughter suffering a lot since her husband is an impotent. As well, my close relative's daughter has also gone through the same problem. I am going to travel across Tamil Nadu for the signature campaign and get at the least of 1Crore signature from the people. Also I have approached Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and his son deputy CM M.K. Stalin about this and I will accomplish with my mission before I breathe my last."

So what you feel? Hmmn … I felt it is important. I know there is lot of people criticizing this movement. I read few discussion forums also. 80% of the criticism come from the so called male ego J.

Blood Group Matching

First I will explain the funda behind blood grouping. There are 3 things that decide our blood group.

1. Antigen type.
   
2. Antibody type
   
3. Rh type
   

There are 2 types of antigen and antibody. A and B, J pretty simple, right? Below is a table explaining how the blood group is decided.

Blood Group	A antigen	B antigen	A antibody	B antibody	Rh factor
A+	X	O	O	X	X
B+	O	X	X	O	X
AB+	X	X	O	O	X
O+	O	O	X	X	X
A-	X	O	X	O	O
B-	O	X	X	O	O
AB-	X	X	O	O	O
O-	O	0	X	X	O

If blood containing some antigen mix with blood containing antibody, it causes reaction and leads to problem. Similarly if Rh+ group blood mixes with Rh- it causes reaction. Ok, Ok, How it matters in the case of marriage? I will explain,

Again, this is not a criterion for deciding whom you marry. But all people who are going to marry should be aware about this problem. If the Rh factor of mother's blood group is negative and father's blood group is positive, then there is high chance of the child being Rh positive blood group. So during pregnancy mother develops the antibodies against the baby's blood positive blood group. Usually during first pregnancy this will not cause problem. But during second pregnancy mother's body will be already having antibody for + blood developed during first pregnancy. This may leads to complications that need serious attention. Baby may develop jaundice at birth. Possibilities are high to get still born if we ignore this problem.

Nowadays in hospitals after delivery they check for this complication and give treatment to remove antibodies developed during first pregnancy. Still… be aware of this problem.