Hehe, Fictitious blind dating!

The tongue-tied moments, the insufferable smile that just does not seem to leave your face, the initial rush, the pause-filled conversations that are brief yet bewitching, the blood flowing right to your face bringing out the pale pink blush, the helplessness in just not being to take your eyes off; for those dimwits ( lol…just kidding ) who have not guessed it yet, these are the sure sign symptoms of a Mega-crush; something that can progress to a very entertaining, amusing, interesting, meaningful and amazing relationship if you are lucky and at the same time tactful.

It is said that the definitive years of a person’s life is his college years. I mostly agree, because I believe that it is a passage of time during which a person evolves, becomes opinionated, decides for himself what is right and wrong and redefines his values. In Manipal, every passing semester brings about new changes, friendships are strengthened if they withstand the trial of time, new acquaintances are made, rifts are created, opinions are changed, relationships are broken; it is all a part of the package deal.

One thing that majority of the students in this town seem to agree on is the concept that being in a relationship enhances the experience that is Manipal. Couples strongly recommend being in love in this student town as it makes the whole place more beautiful, easier to cope with, more enjoyable, more memorable and lots more fun than it is for their single counterparts. It is a magical feeling when everything around you seems so much better, happier and brighter. Staying away from family and childhood friends, the common belief seems to be that it is absolutely essential to find that special someone and foster the bond of mutual respect, love and admiration. It moulds an individual making him more satisfied and complete.

This discussion is what lead me to my next venture; why not bring two similar people, with the same interests, goals and more importantly identical wavelengths together and see if they click! It did not require a lot of effort as the inter-college network in this university town is quite efficient and a couple of calls is all it will take to find consenting students who are ready to try something new just for a break from the routine and predictable monotony of student life. And voila! Just then was born the Blind-date program.

My Kashmiri friend, Payal was introduced to a neighbour’s brother. A budding musician, he was on his way to becoming a dentist. They had the same taste in music, food and politics. She was an introvert but could carry out conversation if slowly drawn out of her shell with mild persuasion. He was a smart guy, with not enough time on his hands to go girl-scouting. Moreover, with his best friend also hooking up recently he needed some quality company of his own and I decided to merely make a teeny-tiny attempt at playing cupid. So, off I sent Payal and Rishabh to dinner at China valley. And the outcome? Not so soon darling, you just have to read on!

The next two victims were Shweta, a colleague and Vikas, a singer in one of the leading college bands in Manipal. She was loud almost to the point of being irritating, out-spoken, a thorough extrovert, found almost everything funny and could not speak a word of Hindi to save her life. He was a friend of her roomate’s boyfriend; funny, cute, witty and loads of fun to chill with. Shweta agreed to meet and hang out with him, on the condition that a bunch of them made plans together. This resulted in a lounge session in Twist followed by jamming in a friend’s apartment.

I was super excited and could not wait to analyse the outcome of these two scenarios. Was I meant to bring them together, was finding solace, comfort and dependable companionship surely that simple? I was absolutely dying to find out.

I ran to Payal as soon as she messaged saying she was back, turns out she and Rishabh totally hit it off and had loads of fun that evening. Dinner was promptly followed up with dessert at Picollos and a walk in the moonlight before he bade goodnight at her doorstep. Bollywood style? I think so too. J The best part is, they have plans for the following weekend.

The bunch of us Shweta’s girlfriends decided to tag along and hook her up for good with Vikas. We spent an enjoyable evening at Twist, where he joined us with his friends and unfortunately things did not go according to schedule. Shweta was constantly made to converse with him, all of us hung out together the entire night and her verdict was she just found him cute and funny but not her ‘kinda guy’. We decided not to give up without a fight, so the next day we all met up at Enigma, the newly opened disc at Sanman Residency. We were all set to ignite flames of passion between the two; however, boy where we in for a surprise! Shweta could not take her eyes of Vikas’s friend Rahul, the DJ at the club. She did not leave the dance floor for even a second and boogied away till the wee hours of the morning. She seemed smitten by the Love bug, unfortunately with the wrong guy. Well, I lost that round but was happy with myself for at least whiling away time this holiday.

However, as far as blind-dating goes, I have come to realise that the odds in Manipal are almost the same as anywhere else in the world. It depends on whether that initial spark is ignited, otherwise the momentum simply cannot be retained, or something like that. J As for me, call me gutless, but I’d rather stick to the conventional way of courtship!