back to article Bride legs it from wedding after groom proves unable to add up

An Indian bride left her wedding ceremony after her gormless fiance failed to answer a simple maths question, it's being reported. Local police were called in to mediate the returning of gifts, including jewellery, which had been exchanged dowry-fashion between the families before the wedding. During the ceremony in Rasulabad …

  1. Ketlan
    Devil

    Eh?

    I'm having trouble seeing the IT angle in this story - unless 'the sum of six and 15' is it.

    1. Ole Juul
      Coat

      Re: Eh?

      Groom = does not compute.

      1. frank ly
        Coat

        Re: Eh?

        Gormless reject of ordinary maths?

        1. Khaptain Silver badge

          Re: Eh?

          var x = "six"

          var y = 15

          var z

          z = x+y

          Display the value of z...... Ouch

    2. Peshman

      Re: Eh?

      Eh? Indeed.

      You seem to have misunderstood what the Bootnotes section of this site is for.

    3. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Eh?

      >I'm having trouble seeing the IT angle in this story

      India, a country that produces many very very bright mathematicians, physicists and coders, and hosts famed technical technical colleges... and this gentleman restores the balance.

      1. Hans 1
        Coat

        Re: Eh?

        >India, a country that produces many very very bright mathematicians, physicists and coders, and hosts famed technical technical colleges... and this gentleman restores the balance.

        Nah, the groom appears to be Texan ... and has certainly applied for a job at the patent office, maybe ?

      2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: Eh?

        "technical technical colleges"

        ...so good they named it twice?

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Eh?

      More than 50% of our IT support team are based in India.

      This story illustrates why the savings on the accounting spreadsheets might not be savings to the firm in the real world.

      1. wikkity

        Re: Eh?

        A single individual's mathematical ability is hardly ive of the country as a whole. If that was the case we'd be screwed, our prime minister and education secertary both decline to try and answer questions that are only ever so slightly harder.

        Not that I'm keen on outsourcing to india but the issues are not to do with the employees abilities, or if they are that's a mangement issue employing the wrong people.

        1. sysconfig
          Coat

          Re: Eh?

          "... our prime minister and education secertary both decline to try and answer questions that are only ever so slightly harder.

          Not that I'm keen on outsourcing to india but the issues are not to do with the employees abilities, or if they are that's a mangement issue employing the wrong people."

          Outsourcing the Prime Minister might not be such a bad idea. He doesn't speak common Joe's language, doesn't understand the world we live in, won't show for TV debates (a concept he strongly pushed forward for the last general election), and hasn't achieved anything useful in 5 years.

          How much more harm could be done by outsourcing him, really? Think about the savings for the tax payer, if we do that with a number of ministers and MPs! Most of the time they don't show up in Parliament either, so can as well set up a conference call instead!

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Eh?

            He's already been outsourced! He's a bloody Scot, and so where the previous two! I say give Scotland their independence, make them take Cameron and Brown and Blair, and put up a fence so that no-one, and especially those three, can come south ever again!

            1. Afernie

              Re: Eh?

              "He's already been outsourced! He's a bloody Scot, and so where the previous two! I say give Scotland their independence, make them take Cameron and Brown and Blair, and put up a fence so that no-one, and especially those three, can come south ever again!"

              I didn't realise UKIP supporters read the IT press. How are you getting on with all the big words?

            2. skeptical i
              Devil

              Re: Eh?

              The joke for awhile about the idea of Mexican "Reconquista" of the south and southwest U.S. was sure, you can have Texas back but you have to take George "Mission Accomplished" Bush too.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Eh?

        "More than 50% of our IT support team are based in India. This story illustrates why the savings on the accounting spreadsheets might not be savings to the firm in the real world."

        Perhaps your accounting department had also been outsourced... to the groom in this story.

    5. Les Matthew
      Boffin

      Re: Eh?

      Now you know what the BOOTNOTES section is all about.

    6. Doctor_Wibble

      Re: Eh?

      The mistake was to give the answer in base 14, when the proper one to use when answering ultimate questions is base 13, as any fule kno.

      Plus or minus Muphry's Law just in case I need to pretend that my keybroad is figghthtng bcka...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Could be a good way to get out of a wedding...

    Been set up for an arranged marriage with someone who looks like 10 miles of bad road? Play REAL dumb...

    1. Khaptain Silver badge
      Coffee/keyboard

      Re: Could be a good way to get out of a wedding...

      " who looks like 10 miles of bad road"

      That put a smile on my monday morning face...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Could be a good way to get out of a wedding...

        My thought exactly and given the simplicity of the problem she was either not going to join beautifulpeople.com any time soon or wasn't the brightest bulb in the box herself. Either way, a lucky escape for the groom.

    2. chivo243 Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: Could be a good way to get out of a wedding...

      I read this story over the weekend, and thought the same exact thing!

      Have an up vote as a Pint is a bit early for Monday morning!

      1. Vic

        Re: Could be a good way to get out of a wedding...

        a Pint is a bit early for Monday morning!

        Ahem

        Vic.

    3. h4rm0ny

      Re: Could be a good way to get out of a wedding...

      I think I'd rather get married than appear that stupid in front of a crowd.

      1. sabroni Silver badge
        Facepalm

        Re: Could be a good way to get out of a wedding...

        Of course it must be that the woman was ugly. Whoever heard of a stupid man?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Of course it must be that the woman was ugly

          She's cute enough, to my eye at least.

      2. Khaptain Silver badge

        Re: Could be a good way to get out of a wedding...

        "I think I'd rather get married than appear that stupid in front of a crowd."

        I thing I would personally prefer to look stupid for 15 minutes than live with Dopey or the Elephant (wo)man for the rest of my life...But each to his own.

        1. h4rm0ny

          Re: Could be a good way to get out of a wedding...

          >>"prefer to look stupid for 15 minutes"

          15 minutes? This is person is going to be the one that got dumped because they were too stupid for their bride for the rest of their life.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Could be a good way to get out of a wedding...

      Apparently the bride had been shown a photo of her prospective husband, the chap who turned up to the wedding wasn't the same person, so testing his mental arithmetic skill was just the icing on the cake so to speak.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Not only no IT angle, but old news, all the main news sites covered this story nearly a week ago.

    BTW, "Watched Five Children and IT" with my daughter yesterday; REALLY upset at the complete lack of IT equipment; what were they thinking of when coming up with the title??

    1. Khaptain Silver badge
      Coat

      I was upset at the Stephen King novel "IT". Never once did he mention anything even remotely related to IT, instead he concentrated his writing on a bloody clown....

      1. P. Lee

        >I was upset at the Stephen King novel "IT".

        http://xkcd.com/742/

        Close enough?

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Devil

        @Khaptain

        That book was an allegory. The clown was supposed to represent hacker collectives, or Microsoft, or something....

        1. Florida1920

          @Marketing Hack

          That book was an allegory. The clown was supposed to represent hacker collectives, or Microsoft, or something....

          The clown responsible for El Reg's site redesign.

        2. skeptical i
          Coat

          Clown was "Pennywise"

          If we are going to run this allegory into the dirt, Pennywise would certainly represent the eeevil of short-sighted manglement, er, management ("The Mangler" was another Stephen King story) that insist on going cheap cheap cheap and then wondering why the whole network seems possessed. IIRC only silver (a decent budget) could stop the beast that was Pennywise's alter ego. (Caveat: I read the book many many snows ago, and the made-for-teevee movie was entirely disappointing.)

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Clown was "Pennywise"

            @ skeptical i

            That's the old knock on adaptations of Stephen King stories, that they are great on paper, but disappointing in other media. I think that "The Dead Zone" was pretty good, and the Green Mile and Shawshank Redemption (and those last two were definitely not horror stories) were great, but other than that it is hard to think of a Stephen King film/TV series that was really good.

          2. Khaptain Silver badge

            Re: Clown was "Pennywise"

            " IIRC only silver (a decent budget) could stop the beast that was Pennywise's alter ego. "

            Now we are getting somewhere, it's the infamous Silver Bullet Syndrome. Who'd have thunk it, from scary clowns to management paradigms all in one thread.

  4. gregthecanuck
    Angel

    Sounds like something didn't add up!!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Missing: One pair of sunglasses and a "YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

  5. Crisp
    Paris Hilton

    Paris Hilton

    Because there is no Paris Hilton angle (except that she probably can't add two numbers together either).

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The IT angle is that....

    ...he works for an outsourcing firm as a support engineer

  7. Zog_but_not_the_first
    Coat

    Two become one?

    Not in this number base.

  8. Andy Non Silver badge
    Trollface

    I'm sure I spoke to the groom once before... he works in an Indian call centre solving financial queries for my bank.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Arithmetic

    When the news items said "maths" I was expecting a question somewhat more advanced than elementary arithmetic.

    Last week I was fixing a download problem for a friend. I did a quick mental guesstimate that its projected completion time in about an hour meant it was using the broadband connection to near enough full capacity. She thought that was mental magic. Rather surprised I reminded her that it was basically the old school arithmetic problem of "how long to fill a bath".

    1. Anonymous Custard
      Joke

      Re: Arithmetic

      Rather surprised I reminded her that it was basically the old school arithmetic problem of "how long to fill a bath".

      In this day and age half the people would then ask you what a bath was, as they only have showers...

      Or if they're being smart, they ask if it's quicker to fill it from the top-down or the bottom-up ;)

      1. Rich 11

        Re: Arithmetic

        How long to fill a bath? I remember that as a calculus problem: "First, assume a parabolic bathtub..."

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    She should be able to score a couple of free goats when handing the dowry back.

  11. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You should have thought to ask her how to spell altar :)

      1. Anonymous Custard
        Joke

        Ah yes, but you also have to remember the first three things that the bride sees after entering the church.

        "Aisle" - "Altar" - "The Groom"

    2. Anakin

      Thats because you refuse to pay the dog tag license fee for her

    3. John H Woods Silver badge

      "Mine started nagging at the alter" -- AC.

      Nice; I wish I had an alter for SWIMBO to nag.

      BTW, wasn't it Benny Hill who said (maybe in a song, IIRC?) that the bride thinks "Aisle altar hymn"

  12. adnim

    Never

    let love get in the way of business

  13. x 7

    You've got it all wrong.....the groom was intelligent, but when he saw the bride for the first time realised she looked like Les Dawson, so he got out of the marriage in the least offensive way

  14. Blake St. Claire

    Arranged marriages

    I wonder why every article covering this – including the original AP article – ends with a comment about arranged marriages in India?

    Was this an arranged marriage?

    My colleagues in India tell me that these days "love marriages" have grown quite common and arranged marriages are less and less common.

    1. h4rm0ny

      Re: Arranged marriages

      >>"Was this an arranged marriage? My colleagues in India tell me that these days "love marriages" have grown quite common and arranged marriages are less and less common."

      Given that she probably would have worked out he was an idiot long before this if they were dating, I'm thinking "Arranged Marriage" is a pretty safe bet in this case.

  15. TitterYeNot
    Coat

    Geek Wedding...

    Priest - Do you take this woman to be your lawful wedded wife?

    Groom - I do.

    Priest - What is the sum of 6 and 15?

    Groom - Wha? Errr...21.

    Priest - Do you vow to be her faithful husband from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health?

    Groom - I do.

    Priest - What lightsaber crystals did Mace Windu use in his famous purple lightsaber?

    Groom - Huh?

    Priest - Every seventh year of their adult life, Vulcan males experience a need to return to their home planet to mate. What is this event known as?

    Groom - Erm....

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The groom missed a trick

    According to BBC: "The bride asked the groom to add 15 and six. When he replied 17, she called off the marriage ... saying the man was illiterate."

    "No, dear. I'm innumerate. You're illiterate. We'll be fine."

    And they left the ceremony to the strains of Sam Cooke: "Don't know much about ..."

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The groom missed a trick

      That's what I thought when I first heard this story. For someone slagging the guy off for being (admittedly quite obviously) as thick as ****, it seemed ironic that she didn't know the difference between "illiterate" and "innumerate"...

      Then again, it's quite possible- if not probable- that this is something that was lost or mangled in translation from the original language, so I probably wouldn't make too much of it.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm suer I have spoken to this guy at least once

    He works for TalkTalk

    1. Red Bren
      Joke

      Re: I'm suer I have spoken to this guy at least once

      Lucky you didn't try writing to him, with spelling like that...

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sad if true...

    ...that she was unable to determine this personal flaw prior to the wedding. We definitely do NOT want to see these people breed.

    I know that I have spoken to this man and many of his friends via "tech support" from India over the years. There is nothing more exasperating than trying to explain basic PC ops to folks who don't speak audible English language or have a clue about PC hardware.

  19. skeptical i
    Pint

    "intellectual destitution" -- bravo!

    Is it stealing if I let you know aforehand that this phrase may appear above my name in another time and place later?

  20. J.G.Harston Silver badge

    The report on the BBC World Service was that the marriage had been arranged without the bride or groom meeting. The bride consented after being assured by her and his parents that the groom was educated. At the wedding she suspected this was not the truth and asked the sums question.

    Also, on the subject of arranged marriages in modernising developing countries, there is an increasing incidence of couples who already know each other to ask their repective parents to arrange a marriage for them. So, it's an arranged marriage with a pre-vetted candidate.

    And how many westerners can say they've never had an older relative say something like: that Susie you used to know at school has grown up well, why don't you get in touch with her...

  21. crediblywitless

    I suspect these two people didn't want to marry each other, and they set this up as a way out.

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