Ever waited with bated breath, in a quest to meet someone you never saw in reality before? Well, you’re not alone– thanks to a glut of dating apps that have mushroomed in the recent past; the hook-up culture in India is witnessing a humongous boom. But the credibility and feasibly of such platforms have come under the scanner a couple of times. That said, we spoke to a volley of youngsters in the city who divulged some hair-raising anecdotes spanning funny to downright bizarre.
Talking about an eerie encounter, Shweta* a 23-year- old stylist from Mumbai says she registered on a popular dating app, right after moving to Bengaluru.
“After a series of rejecting people, I stumbled upon this guy who seemed interesting. I liked the way he spoke over the phone, so I expected someone smart or at least somebody who’d be able to hold on to a conversation. But the reality was far away from it— He turned up in these snug-fitted shorts and had waxed legs! Yes waxed legs!
“And all he spoke about was about grooming and hair removal the entire time.
There was a stark difference in the person I found online and the person who was sitting in front of me.” Trying her best to sneak out of the situation, she says, “I didn’t know what to say after a point and excused myself citing a splitting headache. I ran out like the building was on fire!”
Kishore*, a 24-year-old emcee, discloses the unimaginable, “I started a conversation with this lady who mentioned that she was ‘slightly’ older than me. Since I wasn’t really looking at dating her, I agreed to meet her. When we met, she looked well into her fifties. And to my horror, as we spoke we discovered that her son and I were classmates. It was so weird that she was still trying to impress and hook up with me because I was popular in the city.”
Speaking about the trend, Shriya Naryar, a counselor, comments, “People have the bandwidth to look around, date and even stray. And deep down, it all arises from loneliness. Just because you have 400 odd friends on your list, it doesn’t really mean you have a shoulder to cry on. While meeting somebody on such portals isn’t depraved, don’t take the idea too seriously. At the end of the day, most people aren’t looking for a relationship with someone they’ve hooked up with on an app. Because our virtual identities are often the airbrushed versions of our true selves, join in to socialise and meet different people,” she reiterates.
Got a date? Don’t lose heart or your mind in the process. Because maybe not all’s fair in love, war and umm, blind dates.
(*names have been changed to protect identity.)
