August 15, 2011 | 0 Comments
There are billions of people in this world and sometimes that makes finding the perfect partner like finding a needle in a hay stack. For South Asian American men and women,
the challenge of finding the right person is one unique to the experience of walking the line between two cultures. In turn, we are always on the search for someone who is a cut
above the rest- someone who understands and appreciates the blend of Indian and American cultures, someone who can make our mother laugh, someone who is attractive,
has a good career and along with all of that, someone who makes us smile and get butterflies every time we think about them. I have several South Asian American friends who
are still looking for that perfect someone to spend their lives with. These individuals are beautiful, smart and have incredible professional careers, but somehow their perfect
mate alludes them. Why is it so hard to find the right person?
It takes investment of both time and emotion.
The problem is, who has the time? In general, South Asians are taught to put education first, which leads many to go into professional fields that are very demanding. In light of
this, it’s no wonder our parents encourage an arranged marriage- it’s easy, less time consuming and you can make sure the person is of “quality”. And while that makes sense,
our hearts also want love. We want to experience the magic we so often read and hear about and witnessed in all of the Julia Roberts movies we watched growing up. We want
to be with someone who is so in tune to who we are that they always know what we need. However, we are so busy we tend to let romantic pursuit take a back seat…can we
have it all?
Enter
Jasbina Ahluwalia
: the modern day matchmaker whose background in philosophy and law make her an expert
in balancing the wiles of love with the down-to-earth reasoning necessary for a healthy and happy relationship.
Jasbina is the founder of
Intersections Match
, the only national elite matchmaking and dating coach service designed
for selective South Asian singles. The company’s target audience is selective and accomplished commitment-
minded South Asian Singles who place a premium on their time.
Jasbina is no stranger to the life and demands of a professional. This lawyer turned entrepreneur is also the host of
her own radio talk show, was a finalist for Operah’s Search for a T.V. Host, has been a speaker and panelist for both
Harvard and Columbia business schools and is also the author of a monthly relationship Q&A column for six
publications. Through her own experience as a South Asian American Professional trying to find the balance between
the demands of her profession, her relationship and her culture, Jasbina is able to empathize with the needs and
goals of her clients making the matchmaking process easy, time-saving and enjoyable.
Intersections match launched in 2007 and since then has grown by 200-300% each year while also receiving world-wide press in publications like India Today and the Chicago
Tribune. Generation Ginger got the opportunity to interview Jasbina and find out more about Intersections Match and what it’s about.
Q1.  What was the main inspiration for the company?
As a second-generation professional Indian-
American woman raised in the U.S. with an understanding of the successful blending of Indian and American cultures, I knew there
was a need for someone in the South Asian community nationwide who could relate first-
hand to the challenges of juggling professional, social, and personal demands. My first
-
hand experience motivated me
to create a premium service which could be effectively leveraged by selective professionals wishing to focus on finding that special someone,
while at the same time maintaining demanding schedules. As a result of my personal experiences searching for a life
-partner as a practicing attorney, I believed there would be
a demand for a premium service to assist selective young professionals navigate this most important life decision. I noticed many young professionals had difficulty balancing
their professional life with their personal life. In particular, this can be a common issue for young professionals from South Asian backgrounds, people whose cultures discourage
early dating and teach young people to first focus on their educations and other self-development.
Q2.   There are a number of online dating sites for South Asians –
As an
elite  personalized 
introduction service, how are you different?
Firstly, we are not an online service.
We provide a premium service which differs from online dating
: Our service involves a highly
-personalized, consultative and feedback-
centric process. Before a client meets any matches, I learn our client’
s needs, wants, values, priorities, lifestyle, personality and background via an extensive and interactive
Personal Consultation. Our personalized service is specifically designed to take over the time
-consuming task of screening so that our clients are able to strategically spend their
limited time and energies focusing on matches with real potential. In addition, we do not limit our search plan clients to meeting other Intersections
’ clients exclusively. Rather,
the idea is to exponentially expand our selective clients
’ universe of potential matches. Matches come from our exclusive “
Search Plan
”
client base; our pool of stand-alone
“
Personal Consultees
”
; our
“
Register For Free Database
”
; events we and our nationwide scouts attend throughout the country; our relationships with matchmakers throughout the
country; customized personal ads we run in various upscale publications throughout the country; as well as our everyday lives (including various professional, cultural, social and
charitable organizations). Each match is prescreened, and a criminal background check is run, before introductions are made.
Q3.  What are other services you provide?
Our services include:
stand-
alone Personal Consultations, customized Search Plans, and dating coaching
. We have also helped clients with their
online search and
profiles
. The Personal Consultation, in addition to standing alone as a service, is a prerequisite first step for search plan and dating coaching clients. During the Personal
Consultation, I speak with clients individually for 1.5 –
2 hours
–
an introspective and interactive process. People have found the process of the in
-depth consultation to be of
value in-and-of-itself -
the process of thinking through the targeted questions and articulating one’
s responses is specially designed to explore one
’
s own self-awareness and
expectations, enabling his/her own search efforts to be more effective with
or
without a more proactive Search Plan.
Q4. How do parents/families of your clients generally respond to your service? 
At times the parents/families make the initial contact. Many parents express their views that my background on many levels will enable me to relate first
-hand to the challenges
faced by their kids in their searches. Thereafter our interaction and communication is directly with the ‘
client
’
i.e. the person for whom we are conducting a search
–
the client is
welcome to involve anybody they choose.
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