Oh, who are we kidding? A lot of us have used tinder or at least been through the series of installing and uninstalling it. But, using tinder back in your city is totally different from using it in Sonepat, where you’re much less likely to find your “perfect match”, whatever that means. We’re in a rather isolated space and hence wouldn’t find the best people to go on dates with from the small towns of Haryana. Even if we did, we might stop ourselves because of our caste/ class bias. Swiping from the heart of Delhi, using the 160km radius limit liberally, would be a completely different experience as opposed to doing so from Rai, however, there are still many options to explore, so no need to give up!
Bustling university towns often have the advantage to swipe from a variety of people and colleges, but Ashoka itself has few people, who usually all know each other, and we don’t have as many colleges in our neighborhood. Swiping from the Ashoka campus could be exciting at some point in the future, when the promised Rajiv Gandhi Education city actually builds itself into one, with more colleges coming up around us, but until then, we have pretty limited options.
Well, you’re right- we do have the World Institute of Design next door, but as a loyal Tinder user since a few years, I can honestly say that I have never seen a human from that college on the app, or even in real life.
If you just want to swipe within Ashoka, your ideal radius would be about 0-5kms. Things could either turn out great or be potentially awkward. For example, your match could have a friend who knows your friend, and so on. It’s a small campus, and the news of you being on the app or going on a date with this individual could spread quickly. It could be that you don’t wanna see your match, but they want to see you and you could potentially run into them after unmatching or vice- versa. There could be the swiping with a fake profile too, in case someone’s friend is playing a prank on them. Or, if you’re very lucky, you both could like each other and you’ll have a slightly less lonely and deprived time at college. Good date locations could be- the dhaba, taking a walk around campus, or just getting to the point and hitting them up in their dorm room, before 12:30 am, of course. One of the good parts about swiping within the campus is that you’ll probably have many people to swipe from if you’re queer since our campus does have a relatively sizeable number of LGBTQ or curious individuals, compared to other colleges. If you hit it off in that case, luckily, the limiting resident life policies wouldn’t be much of an issue.
It could be convenient though if you match with YIF’s or MLS students since they don’t exactly share the same environment as you, in terms of programs and common friends, so you could be less scared about the consequences of a not-so-perfect date, such as rumours or running into them during class. However, it would also be crazy if you swiped with your current T.A. Advice- unmatch immediately, otherwise, it would be unethical and inappropriate!
Further, there’s Jindal, which is within a 10km radius. Sometimes, some of us are specifically looking at that space for swiping, because let’s face it- it’s convenient, plus, college- rivalry hook-ups can be hot, after all! You could catch your date at the Bollywood Dhaba, their theka– the yellow door, Kings, or whatever bars they visit nearby. Unfortunately, if you want to take things further, Jindal’s dorms don’t allow the opposite gender to enter their rooms, let alone visitors, and Ashoka too has a strict visitors policy. In fact, rumour has it that people have sex in the open on the Jindal campus- on benches, behind bushes etc. So, you’d probably have to make extra effort to get a room or some privacy with your new “Tindbae”, or resort to some grassy adventures.
It could be that your friend and you could have matched with the same person, which could lead to tension, but trust me, such complicated situations only test the bond of your friendship and help you realize important things.
With a higher radius, of above 10kms and till 30/40, you could tap into the rich diversity of North Delhi and its various colleges- from DU to DTU to Ambedkar. But, a date with someone from North campus would mean even more effort. You’d have to take the shuttle and a few station rides to the GTB Nagar cafes or Majnu-ka Tila. You could try the new “hookup cafe” at GTB Nagar! Mind you, you would probably encounter some messages like “oh you must be an elitist libtard” or my favorite “I applied there, got through, but made the biggest mistake of my life by not joining” or whatever stereotypes exist about Ashoka students in these colleges. At the same time, if you do actually fit the Ashokan stereotype, then you’ll probably yourself consciously swipe on someone with a similar political ideology, whose bio would quintessentially say either or all of the following- “egalitarian, feminist, swipe left if you’re pro Trump/Modi” etc. This way, you’ll have someone new to argue and share a vision for a utopian world with, which is always desirable and fun. If you end up hitting it off with your date from this region, romantic dates, that are (hopefully) rumour and college drama free would await you every weekend, which can be really stress-busting after a busy work week. You could explore the city with your new north bae, and maybe even go on trips with them on long weekends, boarding buses from the Kashmere Gate station to visit the hills.
I often find a lot of queer people and exchange-students in this range. If you really want to meet people from even more diverse colleges, a fun exercise could also be to swipe with a very small radius (0-5km) during college fests, like Banjaara or Biswamil!
Hope you have a good time swiping, and enjoy the interesting diversity that Tinder has to offer in our isolated little Sonepat bubble.
Edited by Vasudha Malani
All images are curated by Sanjna Mishra