Yes, I did it.  I finally succumbed to months of nagging from left, right and centre by family, friends and the main culprit - my darling mother.  I went speed-dating.

Along with internet dating, this was the one other thing I vowed I would never do.  Just the thought of people finding out that I had fallen so low in my quest to find a suitable son-in-law for my mum made me cringe!  So grudgingly I went, just to shut everyone up, and made four of my single cousins come with me in the hope that we would find five gorgeous brothers to marry.  Did that happen? NO!  Was I pleasantly surprised?  Yes!

The night before was the worst.  What do I wear?  Did I want to come across as the homely girl that can cook any sabzi at the drop of her mother-in-law’s hat? Or did I want to be seen as the ultimate party girl?  I opted for a skirt and a sleeveless top: simple. The look my mum gave me as I left the house was priceless.  She wanted me in a saree. Yeah, right.  “Make sure you find someone!”, she called behind me as I scrambled into the car.  Like it was that easy!  If she had it her way, I’d be engaged by the end of the night.

I was a complete bag of nerves.  Luckily, I wasn’t the only one acting like a nutcase.  Mingling with my fellow singletons before the event helped to calm my nerves.

Finally, the dreaded moment arrived.  I took my seat and started to read the candidate list. It was full of accountants, lawyers and IT geeks. And here I was: Miss Media-Studies.  What was I doing here?!  No one would be interested in me..!  As a figure sat down opposite me, I felt myself burning up.  OK, I thought, showtime!  I took a deep breath and raised my head.  Wow! I thought.  He’s cute!  All of a sudden, I had no control over my speech.  Off I went at full speed, rambling about the most random of topics. The good thing? So did he.  By the time the 2-minute buzzer went off, I wasn’t so shaky.  I fake-promised my date that I’d ‘hook-up‘ with him at the after-party, and smiled patiently as he informed me that it was going to be ‘heavy’.  He may have been cute, but he made it clear he was only there for the ‘fit birds’.

As I observed my mother’s next potential son-in-law sit down before me, I wanted to ask him one very simple question:  ‘Did your mother dress you today?’  He looked like he was about to sit his G.C.S.E’s.  Short trousers, checked blazer, and something which smelt suspiciously like Amla oil. Definitely a no. My mum would be devastated.

Suitor Number 3 was as dead as a do-do.  Talking to him was equivalent to trying to get blood out of a stone.  Great, I thought.  My mum is going to kill me.

But after a few more failures, I finally found someone that was worthy of being ticked on my sheet.  He was funny, charming and pretty cute: I could picture my mother and him being very happy together.

By now I had completely forgotten that I was ready to bolt when I first arrived. As the dating drew to a close, I glanced down at my tick sheet.  Four ticks.  Not bad, I thought.

I wasn’t very surprised to see my mum wide awake and waiting for me when I got home.  She wanted every single detail including parents’ names.  She was also disappointed that I only ticked four guys.  You know, there really is no pleasing some people.

Now a word of advice to my fellow singletons:  my initial opinion of speed-dating had clearly been wrong.  It wasn’t full of desperados or saddos, but full of intelligent professionals (apart from a few that I met).  Many of these people were first-timers like me, and for others, it was their third attempt at finding a match.  But there was one thing we all had in common - we were all there to have fun, and meet new people.

So for those of you who are like me and are thinking that the only time you’re ever going speed-dating is if you’re 50 and still single, think again.  The key is not to take it too seriously, and not to have too many expectations.  Just go with the flow, or, in the words of my first date, ‘go for jokes’.  You never know what could happen.

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