> Site Tours
> Features
> Off the Web
> Dr Know
> Celebrity Surfing
Web Logs
> Terror in America
Specials
> Valentine's Special
> Best of Guide 2001
> Travel Guide
> Education Guide
> Email@30
TIPS to search 1
billion Web pages fast!
|
|
![[Three women talk about their search for love online]](13lead.gif)
Nidhi Taparia and Anita Bora
|
Earlier we relied on matrimonial advertisements in newspapers and friends
playing matchmaker. Today, online dating has become the natural by-product
of our age - an age when the Net makes searching for a prospective life
partner as convenient as browsing for a last-minute Valentine's Day gift.
On the eve of Valentine's, Rediff Guide to the Net spoke to three women on their search for Mr Right in cyberspace.
Priya Menon
Deepti Gupte
Sonali Manjrekar
"Talking online is no substitute for real life"
Sheer boredom got Priya Menon hooked onto the idea of meeting someone
online. She found a guy in a chat room for Telugu speaking people. "For some months Sunil and I exchanged email, chatted via IRC and then graduated to telephone calls. He'd call me everyday and when I quizzed him about the cost, he would just shrug it off!" Priya later found out that Sunil was an Andhra Pradesh minister's son.
They finally met in Hyderabad a year later. "I was so excited that I had
goose bumps all over. I couldn't tell my cousins or friends that I was
meeting someone I got to know via the Internet, because it wasn't acceptable
then. We met in a shopping mall; spoke for fifteen minutes and then left. He
looked completely different from his pictures."
The magic created on the Net soon fizzled out. Says Priya, "Our relationship
just tapered off. Then, when I moved to Hyderabad for my job, he called me
out of the blue. It was very spooky. Apparently, we had common friends
through whom he got to know about me."
Can a stranger become a part of your life? Priya believes it's possible, "I
attach a huge importance to online relationships. While they lasted, they
were the high point of my life. I lived for that one chat conversation, one
email or even a call."
But she recounts an experience that left her doubting the wisdom of using
the Internet. "This guy I chatted with seemed very suave. Our chats were
fun. After two months I decided to meet him."
She continues, "There I was, standing at Regal (a movie theater in Mumbai)
waiting patiently for a man who would be dressed in a yellow T-shirt holding
a packet of chocolates. As everybody walked in, I thought I would be stood
up. Then a geeky-looking guy walked up and said, 'Are you Priya?'"
Tempted to ditch the date and leave half way through the film, Priya still
remembers sitting through three hours of Titanic and promising never to date
a man she had spoken to for only two months. In Internet time, it wasn't
long enough.
But she did find romance, albeit for a short time. ICQ, random messages,
witty emails, photo transfers and a deep voice at the end of the telephone
helped matters.
"Vishal was unlike any man I met online. There was no hype: He said he was
quite bad looking, bordering on the ugly. I was surprised by his honesty,"
she says.
But the first date was still as nerve-racking. "It doesn't get easier. In
fact, I was nervous, apprehensive and felt awkward. I almost backed out at
the last minute."
Though not together anymore, Vishal is still a part of her life. "We're in
touch via email and chat. It's tougher to let go of a person you meet online
because you open up so much more."
She recommends the experience to others. "The main benefit is that you're
always in control. You can do it in your own time, and if you don't like the
way things are going you can always end the conversation. If you do find
someone you get along with well, you should really go ahead and meet in
person. Talking online is no substitute for real life."
|
| Read Deepti's Story |
Also Read:
-- Elove: Romance in modern times
-- Too mush to love: Anti-valentine spiel
-- First Date Guide Sites to help you prepare
-- Looking for Love?: Find Mr or Mrs Right
-- Love Scopes: Are you compatible?
-- Are you a good Net lover? Take the quiz!
-- Love Letters: A lover's guide
-- Girl's Guide to Valentine's Day
-- Can't buy love? Roshan Paul tries to prove it does
|