Marriage biodata for a boy: the rows her family reads first

The seven blocks are the same. The weighting is not: career, income, housing and household carry a boy's biodata, and vagueness in any of them is itself read as an answer.

Make my biodata

Free · no account · no watermark · one-page PDF

What the other side is actually trying to find out

A biodata circulated for a man is read with a different set of questions in front of it. The family on the other side is trying to establish, from one page, what he does and whether it is stable, what the household is like and who lives in it, where the couple would live, and what the family's own obligations are. Almost every practical difference between this page and the girl's page comes from those four questions, and none of it is a claim about who should be asking them.

Who circulates it is much the same — parents, relatives, a bureau, a community group, and increasingly the man himself in reply to a message. What differs is what gets checked. Employer names get looked up. Income figures get compared against a designation. Property claims get asked about. Pay slips or an income tax return are routinely requested once talks turn serious. A boy's biodata is therefore the one where an inflated figure is most likely to be found out, and being found out on the money row costs the conversation rather than the line.

The rows that get skipped are the expensive ones. Living arrangements, whether parents live at home and will continue to, whether relocation is possible, whether there are dependants or siblings still to be married, and what is expected about his wife working — these all come out anyway, at the second or third meeting, by which point both families have invested. On the page they cost one line each, and they filter correctly rather than late.

Row by row, weighted the way her family weights it

The same seven blocks as the main format page. The notes below are written for the rows that carry a boy's biodata, plus the two or three that are routinely left off and should not be.

Personal Details

Read quickly. This block gets the document past the first filter; it is not where it is won or lost.

Date of Birth: The full date, one format throughout. The age band is a hard filter on every register.
Time of Birth: From the birth record. Where the family does kundali milan it is not optional, and it is not something to reconstruct from memory: everything the astrologer produces is built on it.
Place of Birth: Town or city, for the chart. A hospital name adds nothing.
Height: Feet and inches with centimetres in brackets — filtered on in both directions, and cheap to state.
Blood Group: One line, and occasionally the first thing a family asks for.
Complexion: Traditional, optional, and asked about noticeably less often on a boy's biodata than on a girl's. Most modern layouts drop it and nothing follows from leaving it out.
Diet: Pure vegetarian, vegetarian, eggetarian, non-vegetarian, Jain — and worth stating honestly rather than aspirationally, because it describes the kitchen somebody would be joining.
Marital Status: Unmarried, divorced, widower. An earlier marriage goes here; it is established at the talks stage without exception.
Habits: Not in the default sample, but many community formats carry a habits row — teetotal, occasional, non-smoker, none. It is optional, and where a community does use it a blank is read as a yes. If your circle's format includes it, answering plainly does more good than leaving it off.

Religious Details

Same rows as any biodata, and the same rule: include the block or drop it whole. Gotra and manglik are the two that generate calls when they are left blank.

Religion: One word, and the first row a community bureau files you under.
Caste / Sub-caste: Both, if the family is matching on them. If not, delete the row rather than writing “any” in it.
Gotra: Checked for exogamy against the other side's. In Maharashtrian practice a Maratha or Kunbi family will look for devak instead, which is a different row doing the same job.
Rashi: The moon sign from the birth chart.
Nakshatra: With the charan, which is part of the answer rather than an extra.
Manglik: Answer it, including purna or anshik if a reading has been given. A blank row is read as yes.
Gan / Nadi: Both derived from the nakshatra. Giving them means the other side's astrologer does not need to call.

Education & Career

The block that carries a boy's biodata. Give it the most room on the page, and make every line checkable — because it will be checked.

Qualification: Highest degree with subject, institution and year, plus the previous degree where it changes the picture — an engineering degree behind an MBA is worth a line. Name the institution: it is the part a reader recognises.
Occupation: The designation as an outsider would understand it, plus the function: “Senior Relationship Manager, private bank” rather than an internal grade code. If you run a business, say what the business does, roughly how long it has run and roughly how many people it employs — “business” on its own tells a reader nothing and invites the least generous assumption available.
Organisation: The employer by name. “A reputed MNC” is the most-noticed evasion on a boy's biodata: families look employers up, and the ones who cannot look yours up assume there is a reason they cannot.
Location: The city you actually work in, and if you are posted away from your family's city, give both. This is the row the couple's living arrangement gets calculated from.
Annual Income: A figure or a range in rupees per annum, and one you can support. Pay slips or an ITR are commonly asked for once talks are serious, so an inflated number is a bad trade — being caught on this row reads as a character question rather than an accounting one. If you are self-employed or on farm income, say what the figure is based on.
Work status abroad: If you work outside India this deserves a row of its own: the country, the visa or permit type, how long it runs, and how much of the year you are in India. Her family's real question is where the couple would live and how soon a spouse could join you, so answer that rather than making them work it out.

Family Details

On a boy's biodata this block is read almost as closely as the career one, because it describes the household somebody is being asked to join.

Father's Name: With the honorific your family uses.
Father's Occupation: In service, retired, or in business with the line of business. If the family business is also your own occupation, say how the two relate — readers assume the worst version of an ambiguity here.
Mother's Name: With the honorific, the same way.
Mother's Occupation: Written as an occupation, homemaker included.
Siblings: Elder or younger, married or unmarried, what they do and where they live. Unmarried sisters are a question her family will ask, because it bears on timing and on the household, and it is far better answered on the page.
Family Type: Nuclear or joint, and who is actually at home — parents, grandparents, a brother's family. This is the row her family most wants and least often gets.
Native Place: The ancestral town or village, which locates the family for anyone who knows the region.
Home: Owned or rented, and the city. Many biodatas carry this row and many families ask for it when it is missing. Own house, own flat, ancestral home in the native place, or rented accommodation in the work city are all normal answers; a vague one is the only bad one. Do not list valuations — a biodata that reads as a property advertisement attracts the wrong reader and makes the career block look like it needed support.

About Me

Three sentences in the first person. On a boy's biodata this block is short and it is not where the document is decided — but a bad one does real damage to everything above it.

What you do and what you like about it, where the family is from and how it lives, and one or two real interests. Specific beats impressive: the Sunday cricket team, the classical music, the trek you actually do. A reader who has just read your designation and your income is looking for a person in this block, not a second version of your career.

The two things to avoid are the appraisal voice — “result-oriented professional with a proven track record” — and the stock virtue list, which is now read as filler on any biodata. Both make a page that was otherwise concrete and checkable suddenly sound like a template.

Partner Expectations

Short and specific, and the block where honesty saves the most time on a boy's biodata.

Age band, education, diet, and where they should be from or settled — two or three sentences. If you have no preference about something, leave it out rather than writing “no bar” after every item, which reads as a form somebody filled in rather than a position somebody holds.

Then say the two things families most often leave out. Whether you expect your wife to work, would be happy either way, or would prefer she did not: all three are legitimate answers, and a vague one is read as the most restrictive of them. And where the couple would live — with your parents, separately in the same city, in your work city, or genuinely undecided. These two questions end more matches after the families have already met than anything else on the page, and one clause each removes only the readers who were never going to agree.

Contact Details

Straightforward on a boy's biodata, and usually a parent's number for a first approach.

Contact Person: A name with the relationship in brackets. A parent is the convention for a first approach; your own name and number is equally normal if you are running the search yourself. Whichever it is, the name and the number must agree.
Phone: One number that is answered; two at most, labelled. A reader who has to guess which one to try often tries neither.
Address: Area and city on a copy that will be forwarded; the full address only on a printed copy going to one family.

The money row, and why it is the one to get right

Income is the row on a boy's biodata that is most read, most compared and most often checked. A figure consistent with the designation and the employer does its job quietly; one that is not raises a question about everything else on the page. Pay slips or an ITR are commonly asked for once talks become serious, and a number that does not reconcile is very hard to present as a rounding.

If your income is irregular — business, farm, freelance, commission — say what the figure represents rather than picking the best year. “Roughly ₹9–12 lakh a year from the family's two shops” is a better answer than a single impressive number, because it survives the follow-up question instead of inviting it.

If you would rather not state it, leave the row out entirely and expect the question in the first conversation. That is a legitimate choice. What does not work is an adjective: “well settled” and “good package” are read as evasion or exaggeration, and on a boy's biodata they are read that way immediately.

Housing, household and the living-arrangement question

The question underneath most of a boy's biodata is where the couple would actually live, and with whom. Answering it takes two rows and a clause: the home row (owned or rented, and the city), the family-type row (who is at home), and one line in the expectations block about what is expected after marriage.

All of the honest answers are acceptable to somebody. Living with parents is normal and many families are looking for exactly that. A separate flat in the same city is normal. Relocating for a job is normal. What is not workable is leaving it unsaid, being asked at the second meeting, and giving an answer the other side had assumed differently — that is the single most common late failure in this whole process.

Keep property out of it beyond the home row. A biodata listing plots, valuations and vehicle models reads as an advertisement, attracts readers you do not want, and makes the education and career block look as though it needed the support.

The photograph, one page, and the file

One recent photograph, face clearly visible, plain background. Formal or smart-casual both read fine. A photograph with the parents is common on a boy's biodata and reads well when the document is going to a single family rather than into a group.

What reads badly: a group photograph where the reader has to guess, a gym or car selfie, sunglasses, heavy editing, and a four-image collage. If your only good photograph is from a wedding, crop it to yourself rather than sending the group and hoping.

One page, exported as PDF, named with your name — “Aditya_Mishra_Biodata.pdf”. A second page usually goes unread and unforwarded, so if the family wants the janm-patrika, send it as a separate PDF. Never send a screenshot: it cannot be printed for a family meeting and it is unreadable after a few forwards.

The rows that cost a boy's biodata replies

“A reputed MNC”
The most-noticed evasion on the page. Name the employer, or if there is a genuine reason you cannot, name the sector and the size and say what the reason is.
An income figure that does not match the designation
Compared more often than people expect, and pay slips are asked for once talks are serious. The cost of being caught here is the whole conversation, not the line.
“Business” with no further detail
What it does, roughly how long it has run, roughly how many people it employs. Three facts, one line, and the row stops reading as a euphemism.
No answer on where the couple would live
Her family will ask at the second or third meeting. Answering it on the page removes only the readers who were never going to agree.
Silence on whether his wife would work
Read as the most restrictive of the possible answers, which may well not be what you meant. One clause fixes it.
Unmarried sisters and dependants left off
It bears on timing and on the household, her family will ask, and finding out late makes an omission look deliberate.
A property list
Reads as an advertisement, attracts the wrong reader, and undercuts the career block it was meant to reinforce.

Questions people actually ask

What should be included in a marriage biodata for a boy?

The seven standard blocks, with the weight on career and household: personal details including date, time and place of birth and height; religious and horoscope details if the family uses them; education and career with the degree, the named employer, the work city and an income figure; family details including parents' occupations, siblings and who actually lives at home; a short paragraph about yourself; a short paragraph on what you are looking for; and contact details. Two rows that are often missing and should not be are the home row — owned or rented, and where — and one clause on where the couple would live after marriage.

Should a boy's biodata mention salary?

Usually yes, as a figure or a range in rupees per annum, because it is the row her family reads hardest and its absence is noticed. Give a number consistent with your designation and employer, since pay slips or an income tax return are commonly asked for once talks become serious and a figure that does not reconcile costs more than the line did. If your income is irregular, say what the figure is based on. If you would rather not state it, leave the row out rather than writing “well settled”, and expect the question in the first conversation.

Should the biodata say whether the couple will live with his parents?

Yes, in one clause, in the expectations block. It is the question underneath most of the document and her family will reach it at the second or third meeting regardless. All the honest answers work for somebody — living with parents, a separate home in the same city, the work city, or genuinely undecided — and the only answer that causes damage is one the other side had assumed differently after two meetings. Paired with the home row and the family-type row, the whole subject is settled on page one.

What if I am between jobs, or my business is new?

Write what is true and add the fact that makes it legible. “Between roles, previously four years with X, currently interviewing” is a normal line on a biodata and reads far better than a blank occupation row, which is read as long-term unemployment. For a new business, give what it does, when it started and what it is currently earning even if that figure is small — a reader who can see the shape of it will assess it, whereas a reader who cannot will assume. Vagueness is the only version of this that actually hurts.

Is a boy's biodata different from a girl's?

The format is the same seven blocks; the weighting differs. On a boy's biodata the career, income, housing and household rows carry the document and are the ones that get checked, so specificity there matters more than anywhere else. Complexion is asked about less and is usually dropped, and a habits row appears in some communities' formats. Two rows that a girl's biodata rarely needs are close to essential here: whether the home is owned or rented, and what is expected about where the couple would live and whether his wife would work.

Make it now, free

The builder opens on a complete biodata you type over — English, Hindi or Marathi, a photo slot, and a one-page PDF at the end with no account and no watermark. Add the home row and the living-arrangement clause before you export. Three biodata templates are built in, free like the rest of it, so a different look is one click rather than a different tool.