Her husband, Anup, who makes occasional appearances on the show, is proud of Sima’s achievements. “We did a lot of travelling last year and Elite only invited 20 of us to attend the awards ceremony at the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island [in New York] ,” he says.
The couple celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary in April, and Taparia is effusive when we ask her about her relationship with Anup.
“I am very lucky. I come from a very conservative family and my husband helped me reach my goals,” she explains. If he was not “a pillar of strength” she would not have been able to achieve what she has, she adds.
Asked if she ever imagined she would be so famous, Taparia says: “I have been ambitious since childhood. I wanted love and respect from the world, and fame is the by-product of that. I kept that thought and it manifested. I [have] love and respect from 190 countries.”
“I get stopped 50 times a day but I always say yes when people ask to take pictures with me because it brings a smile to people’s faces. Whatever happiness I put out into the universe it will return to me 10 times,” Taparia says.
Part of the show’s allure lies in it being a window on the modern Indian dating scene, and an examination of how people balance contemporary lifestyles with an archaic concept like arranged marriage. For Taparia, this was not so.
“Back then, the family decided. I was 21 at the time and [Sima] was only 19; we were very young and we didn’t have much say. My family told me that she was a good girl for me and her family felt the same way about me,” Anup recalls.
“[Anup] saw me once for only 30 minutes and then it was final,” Taparia says. “Now, we give people options. Different options before they meet and they see each other five or six times before we decide whether we go ahead.”
As seen on Indian Matchmaking, it is usually the parents who enlist Sima Auntie’s help. As a result, they remain part of the process – but apart from that, it is like a human Tinder where Taparia does some of the heavy filtering for her clients.
She is in such high demand for her discernment that Taparia released an app in June 2023. The app encourages people to “meet first” at real-life events and “match later” – to decide if taking the next step is worth it.
What she offers private clients is instinct and the culmination of decades of experience. While most dating app profiles reflect how a person sees himself or herself, Taparia takes a more top-down approach – she gets a feel of a person’s family and home, as well as the environment into which they could potentially be marrying.
“I will go to their house, I will eat their food, check out things like their cutlery and other small things. Then I’ll make recommendations,” she says.
Discussing the common pitfalls of modern dating, Taparia says: “People don’t want to adjust to one another. Everybody has highs and lows every day and in life. I always tell them you have to adjust and compromise, you have to be flexible.” These words have been heard many times on Indian Matchmaking.
Anup says: “I come from a family of six and Sima had four brothers and sisters. There wasn’t a lot of pampering. Now most people have one or two kids, so the parents want to give them the best. They have a lot of education and grow up with the best.”
“Now, I tell them to drop the ego too,” Taparia adds.