ife, for Ramanuj Shastry, a graduate of IRMA (Institute of Rural Management Anand in Gujarat), was going just fine when he got a call from his younger sister Kumkum. The year was 1994 and Shastry was stationed in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, as the HRD manager at Dhara (the refined oil company).

When Kumkum called from Bombay to inform the family that she’d fallen in love with a commander in the Indian Navy, Shastry was dispatched to Bombay by his parents to check on the bona fides of the suitor, who was a Malayali (the Shastrys are Oriya). ... more