Non-farter, non-burper, Indian rishta hunt advertisement goes viral for its absurd demands

An Indian rishta advertisement has gone viral for its absurd demands. The ad was posted by an “opinionated feminist” and has left several people in fits of laughter.

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According to BBC, many speculated about the identity of those behind the ad and whether it was “authentic”.

It turns out that it was a prank between a brother, a sister, and her best friend. Using the e-mail address posted on the ad, the “opinionated feminist” — Sakshi — and her brother Srijan and her best friend Damyanti, are the ones who came up with the idea.

All the names are pseudonyms — they didn’t want their identities revealed. Sakshi said, “We are all professionals with steady careers, and (hopefully) promising lives ahead of us” and don’t want to attract “bloodthirsty” social media trolls.

The ad, Srijan said, was “a small prank we played for Sakshi’s 30th birthday”.

“Turning 30 is a milestone, especially because of all the conversation in our society around marriage. As you turn 30, your family and society start putting pressure on you to get married and settle down,” he said.

Sakshi said she does have short hair and piercings, works in the social sector, is opinionated, and that the burper-farter thing is a family joke.The ad appeared in a dozen northern Indian cities and cost about 13,000 Indian rupees ($175; £126) – “an amount we would have spent on presents and celebrations if there was no Covid lockdown,” Srijan said.Sakshi said she does have short hair and piercings, works in the social sector, is opinionated, and that the burper-farter thing is a family joke.

Sakshi said the ad “seemed to have hurt a lot of egos”.

“You can’t say such things out loud. Men ask for tall, slim beautiful brides all the time, they brag about their wealth, but when the tables are turned, they can’t stomach it. How could a woman set such criteria?”

The ad, she added, “was a satirical statement on this narrative and I assume that the people getting triggered are the same as those who put out these kinds of ‘slim, fair, beautiful bride wanted’ type of ads in the first place”.

And for those “triggered by obvious satire”, she had a question: “Do you send such triggered emails to all the sexist, casteist ‘bride wanted’ adverts that appear in the papers everyday? If not, then you need to curb your patriarchy.”