Shaadi.com Underwater Marriage

Mumbai, Monday, June 23, 2003 After triggering a sea change in the way matches are made today, Shaadi.com now is making waves -- literally. Shaadi.com is proud to announce a world-record breaking matrimonial event -- a 30-minute underwater marriage. And as it turns out, it is also a marriage of an imaginative mind and an adventurous heart.

Captain Partho Das director of Marine Centre, a club in Vashi, Navi Mumbai. And coming from the city of the 21st century, he had a contemporary idea -- to arrange an underwater marriage. But who, in a tradition-rich country would be willing to step out of tradition? And that too for once-in-a-lifetime marriage?

Enter http://www.shaadi.com/">Shaadi.com, http://www.shaadi.com/">The No. 1 Matrimonial Services Provider. Captain Das had heard of this online matchmaking company called http://www.shaadi.com/">Shaadi.com from family and friends. Can http://www.shaadi.com/">Shaadi.com help find an adventurous couple that will be willing to take the plunge? (pun intended!)

http://www.shaadi.com/">Shaadi.com instantly agreed. After spearheading the online matchmaking movement for 6 years now, this was an excellent platform for http://www.shaadi.com/">Shaadi.com to make a foray into wedding planning. Together, http://www.shaadi.com/">Shaadi.com and Captain Das began the man- and woman-hunt.

Enter Chandan Thakur and Dipti Pradhan. Adventure-lovers to the core with mountaineering as their first love. Met three years ago in Ladakh (of course, they just missed meeting each other on http://www.shaadi.com/">Shaadi.com. Both had registered there -- then, Sagaai.com - in search of their soulmate). The sequence appealed to them -- first meeting on a peak, engagement in mid-air and marriage under water!

Several brainwaves and water-splashes later, the plan was frozen -- a 30-minute underwater wedding which would make its way into the Guinness Book of World Records and the Limca Book of Records.

Day and date of marriage: Monday, 23 June 2003
Venue: Marine Centre swimming pool, Vashi
Wedding Ceremony: 11:30 am to 12:05 pm underwater

Highlights:
· Traditional Hindu marriage with fire and even pheras ... under water!
· Underwater Shaadi mandap designed by Nitin Desai, of Devdas fame
· Coverage through multiple underwater cameras relaying on a giant screen
· Couple along with family members and pundit to remain under water for 30 minutes -- a world record breaking event, covered by Guinness Book of World Records and Limca Book of Records
· Worldwide media coverage including Discovery and BBC television crew
· Honeymoon sponsored by http://www.shaadi.com/">Shaadi.com -- the location is a surprise, but surely above water!

http://www.shaadi.com/matrimonial_events/index.php">Shaadi.com Under Marriage Event

http://www.shaadi.com/">About Shaadi.com
http://www.shaadi.com/">Shaadi.com was launched in October 1997 as Sagaai.com, to cater to the matrimonial and wedding related needs of Indians and South Asians all over the world. The company created the market for online matrimonials and in the process redefined the meaning of an arranged marriage.

Within 6 years of its inception the company has emerged as one of the few successful dotcom start-ups in India. Today the brand is recognized by Indians and other South Asians all over the world and the companys matrimonials website has become the default destination for hundreds of thousands of single Indians world over. A testament to http://www.shaadi.com/">Shaadi.com's success is the success story page on its website. The page documents experiences of thousands single Indians who have found a match through http://www.shaadi.com/">Shaadi.com and continue to do so everyday. Channel Partnerships such as the ones with Yahoo and Microsoft are a further credence to http://www.shaadi.com/">Shaadi.coms strength, approach and business model.

Today, http://www.shaadi.com/">Shaadi.com the website is one of the http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=http://www.shaadi.com">one of the top 2000 websites in the world (Alexa Rating) and it's 600,000 members consistently log over 100 million page views per month. Besides the match-making website, the company also operates http://www.shaaditimes.com/">ShaadiTimes - a complete marriage and wedding-planning portal. Further, the company has recently launched an offline publication called http://www.shaadiexpress.com/">ShaadiExpress in the USA in partnership with Indian Express North America.

http://www.shaadi.com/">Shaadi.com is headed by Anupam Mittal, a media strategist with over 10 years of management experience at leading U.S corporations.

In case of any queries, please feel free to contact:
Ms. Vandana Asija
PR Manager
Tel: 91-22-24952277
Email: vandana@shaadi.com