No more lonely hearts

Datedosti.com is a new age dating site that keeps information discreet and targets the young middle class India looking for a date or even a friend

No more lonely hearts

Datedosti.com is a new age dating site that keeps information discreet and targets the young middle class India looking for a date or even a friend

So your friends have done everything to change your singleton status, trying desperately to 'hook you up' with people. You have been abandoned in bars and left with a relative stranger, sent out on blind (and we mean, blind) dates, given numbers and email addresses of 'singles who are ready to mingle' and so on. But nothing unfortunately has born results. So now is the time to crawn the net, if you're done with being single. A week-old dating site, DateDosti.com, run by three bachelors in their mid 30s, is just what the doc ordered. The only condition is that you have to be at least 18.

Determined not to be lost in the maze of dating sites, the biggest USP of this site is that they put women in control by providing them a safe platform to make friends. This is how it works. A man can approach a woman on the site only through a machine generated message. Elaborates Arjun Sawhni, one of the partners, "There are five options like 'Mujhse dosti karogi?', 'May we chat?', 'Like your profile. Can I have your email?" etc. If the girl is interested after looking at the profile, she can go ahead. Otherwise, she just has to delete the message. There's no scope of spamming or abusive messages from the men."

Given that the website is for the new, young India that's brazen and don't shy away from dating new people, isn't this a sexist approach? "In India, women are slightly more vulnerable than men. In Delhi itself, the crime rate against women is appalling. So it's not sexist, it's just being prudent. The man too can block a woman and mail us complaining about her behaviour," explains Arjun.

What's hot:
"The site has 3000 members already. At any given time, there are 100 people online who spend, on an average, 15 minutes on the site." Not a bad start at all. In the next 15 days, the site will announce a contest for members in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai where the 10 best women's profiles will win a date with a popular VJ and some goodies too. The site also aims to be friendly to sexual minorities and help them find companions.u00a0

What's not:
Although the site has a pan India approach, it does not make for a niche enough search engine. We did a trial search, specifying the income bracket, habits, religion and age bracket. But nothing matched our search.u00a0u00a0u00a0