In the IT city, the Brahmins are facing a problem – many of the young men in traditional occupations don’t have brides as ‘women prefer techies with potential for overseas jobs’A two-day Brahmins’ convention that began on Saturday set the stage for a debate on the ‘matrimonial problems’ within the community. One among its prime concerns was the acute shortage of brides, especially for those who pursued the community’s traditional occupations of priesthood, cooking and farming.The event – organised by the Bengaluru chapter of the Akhila Karnataka Brahmana Mahasabha at National College grounds – minced no words in telling its young women of marriageable age to stop looking for high-salaried techies alone. It also sent a strong message against intercaste alliances, and urged couples to have more children, especially girls, so as to alleviate the ‘bride problem’. Being a closely knit community, forming just 4 per cent of the state’s population, the members also expressed concern over the rising graph of divorce within their circles. Also, despite reaching out as far as Jammu and Uttar Pradesh, their matrimonial problem has remained unsolved.Malini N, vice-president of the Mahasabha, said: “The problem is such that we have reached out to as far as Jammu and UP. Though we succeeded in getting brides from UP, a majority of brides in Jammu were degree holders and preferred somebody ‘educated’.” She also appealed to the community to look for alliances only on Brahmin Jodi matrimonial site.“Today, many of us cannot even think beyond having one child. But I request the community members to beget many children, especially girls, so that we need not go out in search for brides. I agree that the community men practising agriculture and cooking are not getting brides. This is mostly because all of us have begun to measure life in terms of money and always look out for software engineers or those settled abroad. But what they [the women looking for techies] do not know is that these men [in traditional occupations] earn more than techies by practising agriculture and accepting cooking contracts! We must all pledge that we will only marry off our daughters to Brahmin boys in any part of the country.”Yet another community member, Vriksham Suresh, said: “With just 47.60 lakh population, our community has witnessed the highest rate of divorces in recent times. These problems can be attributed to pre-marriage expectations, especially among girls about their prospective groom. If we could correct these expectations and accept the reality, there will be several successful marriages.”A member of the Mahasabha in Mysuru, DT Prakash, said: “Occupation has turned out to be a major hurdle for anything. Everybody desires to marry a techie or one who is settled abroad. In fact, divorces within the community are because of increased foreign trips.”On intercaste marriagesThe convention also saw some hardcore views. Sri 1008 Vidya Varidhi Theertha Sripandangal of Srimat Kanva Mutt said: “No matter which mutt we belong to, which sect we follow, we must marry our children within the Brahmin community.” He also added that the community members should not fall for “political rules or incentives” that promote intercaste alliances as this is done for “political gains”.