Last night I watched the first episode of NDTV Imagine’s next big show Pati Patni aur Woh, an adaptation of the international format Baby Borrowers. Since we Indians are obsessed with rituals, the five participating couples began their 30-day stay with a grihapravesh ceremony. Whatever.

The unmarried couples made a big deal of the sleeping arrangement. “Yeh toh joint bed hai,” squealed Rakhi Sawant dramatically and put beau Elesh Parujanwala to work separating them. Thankfully, she’s packed away all her pretty Indian pastel outfits and sounds and looks more like herself—if you can ignore the ghastly new fringe.

The show has several sponsors such as Vodafone, Chevrolet and Aquasure; the ad breaks brim with organized mommys and multiple happy children. The promo of Rahul Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Imagine’s next  swayamvar show starring bejeweled creep Rahul Mahajan, looks totally out of place. I have no idea who will be the best mommy-daddy combo, but I’ve already decided which couple I like the least—Gurmeet and Debina, television’s Ram and Sita.

Gurmeet says he’s a prankster (and he actually gets all excited when he cuts baigan for the first time…yawn) but Debina never understands his jokes. They hang a picture of themselves as Ram and Sita and Devina spends most of the episode whining: “There’s no DVD player, they promised us a DVD player. There’s no brown rice. There’s no pressure cooker.” The last one is a toughie. Imagine looking after a baby and handling the kitchen without a pressure cooker.

Most of the women lament the absence of the pressure cooker. In fact, Rakhi’s the only one who seems unperturbed by the lack of kitchen equipment and she even rolls out some chapattis calmly (then of course we have to watch Rakhi and Elesh feed each other).

If the first episode is any indication, it looks like the men will turn out to be typical Indian men with no visible domestic skills or capabilities.

This show is competing with Laado on Colors and Perfect Bride on Star. I tried watching the latter during the breaks, but somehow it’s easier to watch whiny non-celebrities than whiny real women.

Bottomline: If the participants don’t start squabbling and bitching, the show might actually turn out to be good timepass.