It's official. My shaadi.com premium membership has expired.... again. This time, however, I am not going to renew it. In the last number of years, I have found a reason to pay the stupid subscription fee in order to 'communicate' with other members...it's usually been my own coaxing 'maybe if I just stick it out I'll find someone', or whether some guy has actually caught my attention and I feel the need to pay the ridiculous amount just to send him a message.
Well, no more.
I've met enough creepy guys on shaadi.com and not enough fabulous boys on eHarmony to finally give the online dating scene the curb-side checkout! It's quick and easy, but for me, not very effective. I may one day come back to it, but for now, I am happy to bid the online world adieu and see what the real world has to offer! :)
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Speed Dating
I ended up at not just one, but two speed dating events last week. The first was a Hindu Speed Dating event promoted by shaadi.com.
As usual, I was cutting it close in terms of timing. I had a squash match at 5pm (in Mississauga) and Speed Dating started at 730pm, in Little Italy, about 45 minutes away. By the time I played and showered, I had exactly 48 minutes to get there and find parking. I didn't account for construction through downtown, which meant that I arrived about 10 minutes late. Oops! Thankfully, they hadn't started yet!
I had no clue what to expect. I had always heard about speed dating and imagined sitting across from 14 guys, having the same, repeated conversation separated by the sound of desk bell. Ping! Well, that's pretty much exactly what it was...except for the repeated conversation.
I was actually surprised to find that I ended up having at least 10 unique conversations where everyone tried to ask something different. Okay, the basics were repeated, but either I, or the person sitting across from me, was able to steer the conversation in a new, unchartered direction.
We had eight minutes to learn more about the other person. It was advised that we keep notes so that we could remember everyone at the end. This didn't prove necessary as I met some pretty interesting characters.
The first 'date' I had was with a guy who was 31 and lived in the city. He was new to speed dating as was I. Small talk for the first four minutes, but then he asked "so, what are you supposed to ask the other person during the eight minutes?". I wasn't sure what to answer so fumbled a bit as he chimed in and said "well, I googled it before I came and now have a list of questions we can go through". Intrigued, I asked what he had found. He took his phone out from his pocked and showed me the google search results!
The eight date was with a fairly inebriated man who quickly determined that I am Gujarati. "So, what do Guju's look for?", he asked. It required a lot of composure on my part not to answer "someone who isn't completely drunk at speed dating!".
Then, I met Carl. He was my last date. I had only one person I was interested in up until that point, and while I was quite amused by the people I had met, I was slightly disappointed with the overall result of the evening. Carl seemed like a nice guy but for anyone who has heard of the iPhone app "Talking Carl", it's all I could think of. Unfortunately, Talking Carl was all I could think about. Everytime Carl would say something, the higher pitched echo would ring through my head. It was slightly amusing to me and highly unfair to the person sitting across from me.
I decided to give Carl a second chance (and hopefully allow for my maturity to kick in) and ticked 'yes'.
Unfortunately, the second speed dating event was a complete flop with many of the guys quite a few years younger than me.
As usual, I was cutting it close in terms of timing. I had a squash match at 5pm (in Mississauga) and Speed Dating started at 730pm, in Little Italy, about 45 minutes away. By the time I played and showered, I had exactly 48 minutes to get there and find parking. I didn't account for construction through downtown, which meant that I arrived about 10 minutes late. Oops! Thankfully, they hadn't started yet!
I had no clue what to expect. I had always heard about speed dating and imagined sitting across from 14 guys, having the same, repeated conversation separated by the sound of desk bell. Ping! Well, that's pretty much exactly what it was...except for the repeated conversation.
I was actually surprised to find that I ended up having at least 10 unique conversations where everyone tried to ask something different. Okay, the basics were repeated, but either I, or the person sitting across from me, was able to steer the conversation in a new, unchartered direction.
We had eight minutes to learn more about the other person. It was advised that we keep notes so that we could remember everyone at the end. This didn't prove necessary as I met some pretty interesting characters.
The first 'date' I had was with a guy who was 31 and lived in the city. He was new to speed dating as was I. Small talk for the first four minutes, but then he asked "so, what are you supposed to ask the other person during the eight minutes?". I wasn't sure what to answer so fumbled a bit as he chimed in and said "well, I googled it before I came and now have a list of questions we can go through". Intrigued, I asked what he had found. He took his phone out from his pocked and showed me the google search results!
The eight date was with a fairly inebriated man who quickly determined that I am Gujarati. "So, what do Guju's look for?", he asked. It required a lot of composure on my part not to answer "someone who isn't completely drunk at speed dating!".
Then, I met Carl. He was my last date. I had only one person I was interested in up until that point, and while I was quite amused by the people I had met, I was slightly disappointed with the overall result of the evening. Carl seemed like a nice guy but for anyone who has heard of the iPhone app "Talking Carl", it's all I could think of. Unfortunately, Talking Carl was all I could think about. Everytime Carl would say something, the higher pitched echo would ring through my head. It was slightly amusing to me and highly unfair to the person sitting across from me.
I decided to give Carl a second chance (and hopefully allow for my maturity to kick in) and ticked 'yes'.
Unfortunately, the second speed dating event was a complete flop with many of the guys quite a few years younger than me.
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