I am Malayali and I like pazhampori with my chaya, I can’t find fault with Mohanlal, and I like coconut oil on my head and in my food. So, naturally, when I heard of a dating app designed for Malayalis, I signed up right away. Unfortunately, my Arike experience lasted all of 10 minutes.

I downloaded and signed up on a Wednesday. One by one, Arike showed me four profiles. I swiped left. Because you know, there are always more profiles out there. But right after the fourth swipe, Arike told me my ‘feed is currently empty’, and it has remained empty since. Arike asked me to ‘update preferences’. I reviewed my settings.