The curious case of India’s shrinking dating pool

A friend in Mumbai recently told me she had four different encounters with the same man without ever quite dating him. The first time he appeared on Tinder, where they matched and exchanged a handful of messages briefly before the conversation dissolved in the usual way. Several months later he reappeared on Bumble, where they politely pretended not to notice the prior encounter. The third sighting happened at a friend’s birthday party in Bandra, at which point they recognised each other with the weary warmth of colleagues who have met at too many conferences.

The fourth time he showed up at a curated dinner for singles.