RISHTAS BY DAY, RIGHT SWIPES BY NIGHT

Welcome to modern India's dating dichotomy, where singles are caught between the fast-paced world of dating apps and the age-old tradition of arranged marriages

- RADHIKA AGRAWAL

In India, dating in your late 20s is an extreme sport. One moment, you're swiping past the same recycled bios and awkward selfies, trying to decode what "chaisexual" actually means, and the next, you're dodging rishta proposals sent with a fully itemised biodata from your mom's WhatsApp group. The modern dating scene has become a chaotic blend where late-night NSFW DMs are exchanged in parallel to daytime discussions about compatibility and horoscopes. In a world where the digital and traditional worlds of love are constantly at odds, how do you figure out what works for you? In my recent romance novel Red Flags and Rishtas, I explore this balancing act through two polar-opposite protagonists – Ananya, who swipes through matches like it's her full-time job, and Aadar, who has happily outsourced the search for 'the one' to his parents.