In her words “it’s really important that I have this man…I’ll die if he doesn’t come into my life.”

Today, digital love is a trade, a cut throat business that has Apps popping up like toasters. Online or offline, between dating apps and matrimonial sites, the industry has the country’s curious millennials covered. Everyone’s on the lookout for something: a fling, a connection or a degree of “real” love that can satiate them until the search for the next point on their love bucket list begins. Whether they admit it or not, most of the young and outgoing are active on at least one of these portals to find what they’re looking for.

Ruchika has been on, wait for it… one hundred and fifty dates to find the one! Has she found him? No. Is she still looking? Yes. We called her in and called her out on real men traits, arranged matrimony and even semen tests!

“If love is blind, then why are you still single?”, I playfully asked Ruchika.

“I didn’t intend on going on so many dates. I thought one date would be enough to find THE man of my dreams but it didn’t happen. So I ended up meeting so many men”, she says matter of factly.

“Where did you meet them?”

“Through the newspaper: The Sunday Times matrimonial. They were largely arranged setups. I also used JeevanSaathi.com & Shaadi.com. Others I met through common friends who thought of a good match for me.”

“What are their profiles like?”

“They talk about age, professional qualifications, the city they live in, what they’re looking for etc. Then you exchange emails and get to see photographs to see what they look like. They always lie about their income though and inflate it.”

“Those are paid sites for the masses? Have you ever tried dating apps?”

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“No haven’t tried them but I believe Woo is really good and Truly Madly because they do a thorough check unlike Shaadi.com and JeevanSaathi.com where anybody who has Rs.2500 can log in and register to be contacted. These matrimony sites don’t seem to have too many quality controls. But through apps, one has to go through Facebook profiles and the app can verify you’re real, plus check on the kind of friends you have. That’s the only way to access it really. That’s a great way I think.”

“What were the kinds of men you met on these dates?”

“I’d say most of them would be either boring, casual or decent. As for what they did: I met engineers, IT guys, doctors, chartered accountants, consultants and bankers. Those are the kind of profiles I found.”

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“Typically how would these dates go?”

“So we’d contact each other via email or phone numbers and then decide on a time and place of mutual convenience. I always asked to meet at like a café or casual coffee shop like Costa or Starbucks that ways it’s minimal time invested. There we’d chat and get to know each other and I could scoot as soon as possible if he was creepy.”

Never a bar or nightclub?

“No because you go to a nightclub with somebody you want to spend considerably more time with..And it’s always so loud and noisy in there that you can barely have a conversation. First dates are to get to know the other person and chat. So I never did that at a nightclub.”

“Have you ever spotted the same person on an App and then on a matrimonial site?”

Story continues