It’s all well and good to say that looks have no meaning when it comes to matters of the heart. But how many of us would actually be willing to get into a relationship having no idea what the other person looks like? MTV’s recently-launched web reality series, Dating in the Dark, challenges its participants to do exactly that.
City girl RJ Ayushi Singh, a 23-year-old radio jockey, will soon be seen on the second episode of the show. Talking about her selection, she says, “The people at MTV believe that I have a substantial fan following on social media, and they think I am an amazing RJ, which is why they invited me to participate in the second episode, which will air on June 15.”
But the young RJ wasn’t sure if Dating in the Dark was something she wanted to try. “The original is a UK-based show which has a lot of adult content. After doing a lot of research and asking MTV many questions, I felt satisfied that it was a show that could be watched with family, and I agreed to participate,” she says.
The show is based on the principle that appearance should not be the basis of a relationship. Each episode features three boys and three girls who are allowed to interact, but not see each other until they reach the third round.
For Ayushi, entering the “black box” was an extremely scary experience. “I am very scared of love, and of dark places. I was eager to participate in the show, but I was dead scared. It felt like I had become blind. The others who joined me in the black box were very excited. We found a sofa and made ourselves comfortable with much difficulty. And then we were very curious to meet the boys,” she says. Adding, “I fooled around with them by talking in a weird way, saying, Mein hu Phulwanti, Jharkhand se (I am Phulwanti, from Jharkhand). One of the boys immediately said that he didn’t want to date a girl who spoke like that. But when I spoke to them in my real voice, they were very impressed. In the first round, I felt a connection with Agresh, and we even danced,”Ayushi says.
In the next round, the RJ went on a solo date with Agresh, the man of her choice, but again, they were confined to the black box. Recalling the experience fondly, she says, “We had a lot of fun; he sang songs for me. After that, we had a compatibility test, and on the basis of my answers to a few questions, I was matched with Nooman, another contestant. Next, I was supposed to go on a date with him. I was not very comfortable with that, because I am a one-man woman, and I liked Agresh. But I had to follow the rules.”
In the final round, the girls were asked to choose the person whose company they had enjoyed the most for the big reveal. They were allowed to see each other’s faces for about ten seconds.
Having gone the whole hog, does she regret taking the plunge? “Not at all. It was a beautiful once-in-a-lifetime experience, sitting with an unknown person in the dark and judging them only based on their voice. It was like an experience from the 90s,” she says.
