I don’t know what the norm is in arranged marriages for the girl reacting to the photograph of a prospect. As always, my presumptions are shaped by what is documented in the movies - if she likes the photo, protocol demands that she smile, tilt her head sideways, and gaze at the floor as she makes small circular motions with her right toe, at which point the parents would start planning the ceremony, and a flock of relatives/ friends might erupt into a spontaneously choreographed dance number. The actual process may vary from case to case.
The case was considerably different for us as well. It is important to know that my photos have generated rave reviews in its prime. “Oh, he’s so cute“, “Sweet“, and “Adorable” are only some of the comments that have been elicited. However, people seemed to be less generous after I crossed 10. By the time I joined the workforce, the comments my photos elicited tended to be fall the other side of flattering - with comments such as “What’s that huge blob in the middle of the photo?“, “I suppose this is the photo they took after a bout of measles, eh?“, and “Hey, this picture of you in front of the waterfall is nice. I’m thinking I can use it for my desktop wallpaper… after I crop you out, of course…”
But those comments are just exceptions. Most of my friends tend to be too polite to comment at all.
My fiancee, Rhine, had her own unique reaction when she saw my photo for the first time. She took one quick glance at the photo and said “Wassis? He looks like a Farex baby“. Her statement, weird as it was, also had the benefit of being prophetic. I had, as a matter of fact, bought a can of baby food for myself, half in jest, and half out of curiosity, around half a year ago… (Ok, so that doesn’t make her statement prophetic… let’s say ‘insightful’ and call it even)
When Rhine told me about her comment a month or so later, I retorted “I am NOT a Farex baby. What I do have is Cerelac, so there you go“… I still had almost the entire tin of Cerelac left over, and I showed it to her, and this tickled her pink. Apparently, her ‘Farex baby’ comment and my having a tin of Cerelac with me has an eternal quality to it. It never ceases to amuse her.
