What’s all this?

Greetings valiant internet traveller. You must have journeyed far and wide to have ended up here. So let me quickly explain to you what here is.

In 2009, I acquired my first and only relationship. For excellent reasons it died in 2011. Since then I have been single and increasingly horrified at the prospects available to a strong independent woman over the age of 28 in urban India today.

I live in Delhi, a very large and diverse city, and yet it has been nearly impossible over the past almost four years to meet a single guy willing to go on a date. It might, of course, just be me. But Me is a rather enthu patani who likes to find patterns everywhere, so Me began to formulate all sorts of theories around dating for smart, educated, independent women over 28 in urban India. So when I stumbled upon 100 Dates of Summer, I was inspired to take the idea and run with it.

I decided that I would try and date a bunch of men, with some rules in place, and see which of my theories, if any, were actually supported by experimental evidence. Of course I decided to be realistic, so the number of dates I will do is 50, and I am giving myself till the end of 2014–so nearly six months*. And of course, being the poster child for the internet, as my flatmate calls me, I had to document it.

Here are the rules:

1. A date is defined as going out and doing something one-on-one. This could be a meal, a drink, coffee, a play, a movie, a walk. This does not mean ‘hanging out’ in someone’s house, mine or yours.
2. You must be single. I don’t care if your relationship is open or she doesn’t understand you and you’re staying for the kids, or whatever.
3. Sex is off the table. This is about meeting and getting to know people.
4. The date might lead to more, or it might not–that is not the goal. It’s just getting to know each other. However, should it lead to a second date, that date is excluded from the experiment. The goal after all is to see if there are fifty men I could go on one date with.

If you want a longer story, look in the sidebar, where you can find out my history, my theories and the problems I face. Otherwise, dive right in to the dates–I’d advise first dates before second–or you can see what a snarky bitch I can be and check out my Imaginary Letters to all the strange men who write to me.

*I have been told, balls a it’s reasonable timeframe. I think this is possibly true because really can I do more than 1 date a week? So OK, I’ll give myself till the end of June 2015.

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So the dating project ended in July 2015 (spoiler: it’s not good), and now I’m just writing about random shit.