India, June 25 -- Welcome to Haryana-where cows are sacred, but brides are scarce. In a land that once killed off its daughters before they could even breathe, the ghosts of those unborn girls now haunt its skewed demographics. Fast forward a few decades, and here we are: more moustaches than mangalsutras, more bachelors than bhabhis, and enough frustrated men to form a "Randa Union"-the only union where heartbreak is on the agenda, and romance is a pipe dream.

It's almost poetic. Decades of "Beta chahiye, beti nahi" have birthed a dystopia where beta is all you've got. Congratulations! You've successfully created a society where finding a bride is harder than cracking the UPSC.

In fact, in some villages, "Bahu do, vote lo" became an ac...