Maidens take over

It’s not just men getting down on one knee, a Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) fan Heta Shah, got down on one knee and proposed to her boyfriend during the team’s encounter with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the MCA Stadium in Pune. Nail-biting cricket matches have become the ambience of choice for the young to propose to those they’ve given their hearts to — and what’s even more noteworthy is that gender stereotypes are being broken — girls are taking the initiative to ask men of their choice to marry them, in full public view on the stands.

Though the trend has been noticed for a little while now, the ongoing IPL matches seem to have set off a spate of marriage proposals.

At a Kokata Knight Riders (KKR) outing, a fan in the stands held aloft a placard saying ‘My mom has asked me to find a guy. So will you marry me, Shreyas Iyer?’

However, though the 27-year-old KKR captain and top order Team India batsman seems to have been given similar freedom of choice, his family doesn’t think it’s time for him to tie the knot.  

“Obviously it will be a girl of Shreyas’ choice, but not at the moment,” says his father, Santosh Iyer. “Nothing for another two years,” he specifies, forcing prospective brides to put their dreams on hold!

During the tense match, the girl pulled out a ring, went down on her knee and proposed to her boyfriend who was with her at the stadium.

Former India opener Wasim Jaffer had a hilarious take on the proposal. “Smart girl proposing to an RCB fan. If he can stay loyal to RCB, he can definitely stay loyal to his partner,” Jaffer wrote on social media.  We learn that the RCB fangirl’s proposal met with a better fate than the one made to Shreyas Iyer – she and her boyfriend are now engaged! Sometime back, English woman cricketer Danielle Wyatt had made a similar public proposal to Virat Kohli (Kohli marry me) though it did not go viral on social media.

Evolution of romantic expression

Sport psychologist and counsellor Anusheela Brahmachary says, “This unusual trend should be encouraged, to break gender stereotypes. When we are talking about gender equality, it should be fine for a woman to express her wish to marry the man she loves.”

In the Indian context, a girl proposing to her boyfriend in the middle of a match is a combination of feminism and globalisation. “It is common in the West to make glamorous proposals. We have seen several instances of proposals in stadiums during a match. We have adopted such trends in India too, due to globalization and cinema and other media. This can be seen as an evolution of romantic expression,” Anusheela says. “A girl proposing is a sign of modernity and equality,” feels Prof. Manish K. Verma, Secretary, Indian Sociological Society.

“India has progressed a lot since colonialism and attained the lifestyle and traits of the modern globalised world. A girl proposing to a boy indicates that India is on the path of attaining gender equality and freedom of expression and decision making.”

Suneeta Kanga, an etiquette expert, says, “It’s wonderful to see how bold and confident young women are becoming.”