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Artist illustrates real life experiences of Indians on Tinder

Lifestyle
DC Correspondent
12 May 2016 3:01 PM IST
Such an art project might greatly help in trying to bring about more lively and meaningful discussions about sex in the mainstream.
Artist illustrates real life experiences of Indians on Tinder
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Illustrator Indu Harikumar came up with the idea for the #100IndianTinderTales project after her Tinder experience in India. (Photo: Instagram/ induviduality)

Writer and illustrator Indu Harikumar had tried out Tinder for the first time in 2015 while on an art residency in Vienna. Although her experience with the popular dating app was great aboard, her experiences in India were a different story altogether. She then came up with the idea of a 100-day project titled #100IndianTinderTales in which she uses illustrations to complement the narratives of experiences Indians and expats dating Indians had on Tinder.

Indu says that she crowd sources the stories from people using social media. She admits that she had not expected that so many people would openly share their intimate experiences and talk about their fears, she told BuzzFeed.

In a country, where arranged marriages are still the norm and sex outside marriage a taboo, such an art project might greatly help in trying to bring about more lively and meaningful discussions about intimacy and sex in the mainstream.

Check out a few of the #100IndianTinderTales illustrations below:

Day 5 of #100indiantindertales Shared by @tinder user from #Delhi “I am obsessed with feet. They turn me on. Like crazy” We were speaking on the phone for the first time, after a week’s chat on whatsapp, and I hadn’t paid much attention to the first time he said this, but twenty minutes later I knew tonight’s conversation was to be focussed on feet. “I may not even make love, but I can sit kissing your toes for hours” Not make love? Okay, it’s not like I want to jump into the bed but I'm a little concerned about my toe being sucked all night long. “There’s something about toes. Clean, pedicured toes…so sexy!” I meet him this weekend, I’d have to go get a pedicure on Friday evening. After work of course. What about you? What turns you on? Or maybe I could wear socks. Winter is almost here; sneaker season yay! “Are you there?” “Oh. Yes. Well, I like everything. I don’t like to focus on one thing alone.” “But what do you think about toes? Doesn’t the thought of bare toes arouse you?” What is with him stuck on toes?! Unmatch. Block. Spend the weekend oversleeping and overeating. #Tinder #illustration #the100dayproject #dating #datingapps #tinderIndia #drawing #dailydrawing #stories #menandwomen #datingstories #feetfetish #feet #womenartists #india #indian #handmade #handdrawn #sexandthecity #sexandIndia

A photo posted by Indu Harikumar (@induviduality) on

Day 8 of #100indiantindertales Some #illustrations I made from #screenshots, mostly of men from @Tinder, posing with their partners and kids. Friends (male) tell me that they see pictures of women in wedding gowns, showing off their engagement rings, wearing the mangalsutra, posing with their kids, etc. In #India, Tinder is also all about loving your family! Someone tell them that though you sign into Tinder using FB, you can change your current DP on Tinder! ________________________________________ These have been #crowdsourced sourced. If you'd like to share your experience, screenshot, please feel free. You could be a local or expat using the dating app in India or you could be an Indian using the app abroad. This is to curate various experiences. #illustration #drawing #dailydrawing #the100dayproject #tinderIndia #Tindertales #family #menandwomen #dating #datingapps

A photo posted by Indu Harikumar (@induviduality) on

A from Mumbai shares a tender tale of love and loss. Day 13 of #100IndianTinderTales "I always loved meeting new people. I feel it is easier to talk to strangers. No one judges you, they don't know you and you can be yourself. As for @Tinder, I first used it in the UK. It was the first time that I was living an absolutely independent life in a new country. Initially I wasn't too keen on a "dating" app but towards the end I didn't mind giving it a try. And in my last few days I met a few people and was glad to have met them. That's when I realised that people were not just looking to hook up but there were people who were genuinely looking for good conversations and some company. Once I came back to India, I uninstalled the app. I thought Indians would use Tinder just to hook up but I was still curious about how it is here. I reinstalled it when I was meeting a few cousins in Delhi (I live in Bombay) and had a few matches. One was with this guy who loved automobiles and was working with Lamborghini. I loved the brand and he was kind of cute. We got talking and got along really well. But I had to come back to Bombay and we couldn't meet. The distance didn't matter, we kept talking. We would talk about cars, movies, music, everything. Overtime, we grew very fond of each other. Having a similar kind of work schedule, we'd be driving at the same time in the evening and would keep each other company on the phone. (1/2) #illustration #stories #The100DayProject #tinderIndia #tinder #dailydrawing #drawing #dating #datingapps #datingstories #menandwomen #Delhi #mumbai #india #indianstories #crowdsourced

A photo posted by Indu Harikumar (@induviduality) on

Day 14 of #100IndianTinderTales from Mumbai. "The conversation was quite beige – not really fun; not really boring – somewhere in between. He had an artist’s face – a brooding, lovelorn, guitar strumming, bearded cute boy of a man. But he finally had my interest when I heard him rattle off the name of a band that I didn’t often hear, that was also one of my favorites. With that we began our little tête-à-tête that lasted a little less than a week, ending with me meeting him on an impromptu night at a bar. We spoke about our love for music, art, history, symmetry, and swapped stories about our exes. He told me about his last girlfriend, someone he lived in with for three years, and had broken up with a few months ago. I figured he was on a rebound but was okay. Haven’t we all been there? So all was mostly well – well besides the fact that he kept pinching my arm, and much to my dismay kept saying gleefully – “it jiggles!” it wasn’t such a bad night. Okay, if you think I let that get to me and put me off him, you’re wrong. My luck with @Tinder was close to being a myth, and right at that point anything worth salvaging, needed to be salvaged. So as was planned, I met him for another dedicated night out – starting at his favorite bar (and I owe him this one – I have a new favorite now). Okay, so I was a little frisky after a few beers, and after some deliberate flirting, and nudging each other on, we found ourselves gate-crashing someone else’s party. The night was turning out to be fun, and my date promising, (except for the fact that he kept a strict tab of who had what and made sure I paid for every drink that I was now sculling down like a tanked bone-head). There was the eye-contact, and the gentle brushing of the arms, the oh so slight grasp of the small of my back, the gentle moving of a lock of my hair from my eyes, and tucking it playfully behind my ear, the locking of the eyes across the room, the playing with my hair … he had all my lady parts alive! (1/3) #illustration #The100DayProject #mumbai #Tinder #Tindertales #tinderIndia #dailydrawing #drawings #menandwomen #datingstories #datingapps

A photo posted by Indu Harikumar (@induviduality) on

R from #Mumbai shares about her first Tinder date in Mumbai. Day 16 of #100IndianTinderTales "A late night conversation with a friend got me on @Tinder. I was always reluctant about installing it, as it is widely used to hook-up but decided to give it a shot. I had no bio, just a couple of pictures but I managed to get about 20 matches within an hour. I spoke to a few guys, most of them were looking to hook-up but I managed to have a few interesting conversations with a couple of guys and decided to uninstall the app. I kept in touch with one guy. He seemed engaging although we didn't have anything in common except for our love for pina coladas. We'd speak to each other everyday and after a week, we met. Five minutes into the meeting, he said, "I have to leave within an hour." After a while, he disappeared for 10 mins to make a call. He checked his phone from time to time and even worked on his laptop for a while. I avoided using my phone because I think it is impolite. This guy was very different from his bio and the person I had spoken to. I thought of leaving several times but didn't. He told me a couple of times that he hates people. By the end of it, I felt like he was trying to run away and get out which left me feeling petty and sad. I couldn't stop thinking about what I had said or done wrong as this was my first Tinder date. I never went back to Tinder. I've realised that most of us have two sides to us - one for social media and the one we keep to ourselves. And though we are all seeking connections, we are happy to have it from behind our screens and become antisocial when we come in touch with real people. Often we forget that we are dealing with fellow humans, living, breathing, feeling, hurting, real people like ourselves, who are also looking and seeking." ______________________________________ These have been #crowdsourced. If you'd like to share your experience, screenshot, please feel free. You could be a local or expat using the dating app in India or you could be an Indian using the app abroad. This is just to curate various experiences and is a personal project.

A photo posted by Indu Harikumar (@induviduality) on

A little late, it is as difficult to draw #Andheri (e) as it is to get there. Day 15 of #100IndianTinderTales When I started this project, I barely had 4 stories and few friends who Tindered who promised to contribute. I wasn't sure how I would generate 100 stories given in the past I have uninstalled @Tinder in less than 24 hours, sighing, "These creepy Indian men!" But this time I decided to stay, not be offended, engage, make screenshots of everything, date, get stories and have some fun. And suddenly the stories started pouring in from absolute strangers. I met one Indian pilot off Tinder who was great fun, flirty, very chatty and a complete Dravidian masterpiece. Thanks to how well he took a 'no', I was ready to meet other folks off Tinder. Next was a Polish-Indian person. We were to meet last Sunday. I was really interested in getting him to write a story. Plus, he was funny and hadn't said - 'Are you looking for fun?' and could laugh at my 'white man's burden jokes' unlike most European travellers. When I first told him about the #100IndianTinderTales project. His reaction: "Oh you are here for research?" "No, I am interested in people's stories and how we connect. I am here to meet fun folks whom I may not meet otherwise. I am open to possibilities without naming them. Plus, this is an #art project" "Good. Would be disappointing if you were doing this just for research and if Tinder was sponsoring you." "Ha ha ha. Wish it was! Imagine getting paid to Tinder, that would be a dream job." So after a week of some chatting which was mostly about travel, food, people, ex communist country #Poland, India, Air BnB in #Mumbai, Andheri East, laced with humour, we decided to meet for 'lemonade'. I was meeting friends during the day and had slotted him for an evening date. But in the afternoon he texted to say: "Hey Indu, crisis situation, I don't want to bore you with details but the laundry has stuffed up my wash, I now have zero clean clothes and they all will have to be redone. Would you be mad if we meet during the week instead?" (1/2) #The100DayProject #illustration #dating #datingapps #drawing #dailydrawing

A photo posted by Indu Harikumar (@induviduality) on

Day 19 of #100IndianTinderTales A traveller shares his Tindia expereinece. Inspiration: #MarioMiranda "As a biracial man who looks somewhat North #Indian, visiting #India gave me mixed feelings. On the outside I seemed to fit in, but every step I took was another culture shock waiting to happen. I am single, so Tinder was a great way to meet locals. After getting over the fact that most women on Tinder will assume I’m a predator unless I prove myself innocent, I managed to lock down a dinner date with a Goan woman in Mumbai. Conversation was great, we connected on many levels. While I knew very little about Indian culture, I did understand some of the traditional pressures young people have to get married. I thought this might be something to laugh about at the dinner table. It was successful. We would joke about getting married because we were having such a successful date. That’s what people do in India, right? How else would we have sex? Hints were dropped and somehow I was able to detect them. Tindia thought it was a good idea for us to have drinks back at my hotel. The drinks never happened but we enjoyed a nice movie and chill session instead. Everything seemed normal. At no point did I feel like this was different to any Tinder date back home. However, the pillow talk then began. Tindia brought up our joke from earlier in the night, I laughed and assumed she was joking. But she pushed, and pushed with a deadpan look on her face. “No we have to be together now. You will come back to Goa and meet my parents…” Haha very funny Tindia. “… but we have had sex now, how can we not get married? What will my parents think? How could you do this to me? I thought you were serious about getting married! I would not have slept with you otherwise!” What seemed like a well-placed joke suddenly became one of my top five kinds of nightmares. She seemed serious, she kept pressing for fifteen minutes straight. I was no longer in the mood for round two. My heart started racing. I was angry and worried. I felt completely misled." 1/2 #illustration #dailydrawing #drawing #the100dayproject #dating #Tinder #tinderIndia #datingapps #menandwomen #travelgram #travel

A photo posted by Indu Harikumar (@induviduality) on

Day 22 of #100indiantindertales P from #Delhi writes about a night of unbridled passion. "By age 37, I have experienced the truest of loves and its devastating loss. A heart that has loved so singularly & lost so purely becomes either fearless or reckless. So when a chance Tinder encounter (*truly* chance because he is only in the same location for a couple of hours when we 'match') reveals himself to be perfect in all ways except that he's married, I don't disqualify him. It is the coldest thing I've ever done - to pursue an intensely sexual encounter with an absolute stranger from whom my heart wants nothing. It also makes me feel alive. We meet and have a spectacular night without an ounce of sleep. I get a cab in the early hours of the morning and as I ride back, there's a smile on my face, a glow in my body and an absolute absence of guilt." #the100dayproject #illustration #drawing #dailydrawing #menandwomen #sexandthecity #sexandIndia #india #dating #datingapps #tinderIndia #artistsoninstagram #indianartistsonInstagram

A photo posted by Indu Harikumar (@induviduality) on

I travelled from upmarket South #Delhi to #Faridabad for more than a year, no one told me such romeos existed. *cries in a corner* Day 23 of #100IndianTinderTales . V from #Faridabad shares his tale. "I hopped onto @Tinder after breaking up from a very long relationship. I guess it was the right thing to do. I mean, what's a better way of getting over having one pretty girl not talking to you than having hundreds of pretty girls not talking to you? Anywho, my initial experiences weren't great. Most of the girls I matched with either didn't respond to my messages, or even if they did and we ended up having decent conversations, they never agreed to meet, for reasons ranging from 'I have a boyfriend' to 'I don't meet people from Tinder', 'I don't have time to meet' and 'I've put on a lot of weight'. :| Finally, I came across a girl that I hit off incredibly well with. I ended up having uncharacteristically smooth conversations with her, and we found out that we have a lot in common, such as our love for puns, and that we were both engaged in the development sector. She also told me that she is a fan of Ted Mosby from the TV series How I Met Your Mother. A meeting was set up. Now, for those of you who haven't seen #HowIMetYourMother, Ted Mosby has a penchant for grand romantic gestures. So naturally, for my first Tinder date ever, I decided to go with a huge banner bearing the girl's name, and held it over my head at the spot where we were supposed to meet. When she arrived and saw me and, with an amused expression, started walking towards me, I put the theme music of the 1970 Hollywood movie Love Story on at full volume on a portable speaker that I was carrying, beside me. When she reached me, I got down on a knee, took hold of her hand and kissed it, and presented to her a small box that on opening revealed a toffee inside. While all of this was happening, a small crowd gathered around us (this was during evening time at the SDA market in Delhi). (1/n) #illustration #The100DayProject #drawing #dailydrawing #dating #datingstories #datingapps #tinderIndia #tinder

A photo posted by Indu Harikumar (@induviduality) on

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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