While on an art residency in Vienna in 2015, children's writer and illustrator Indu Harikumar tried out Tinder for the first time.
Her experience with the dating app was great abroad, but she didn't have as much luck when she returned.
She decided to start a 100-day project titled #100IndianTinderTales in which she illustrates and narrates the real experiences of Indians, and expats dating Indians, on Tinder.
"By age 37, I have experienced the truest of loves and its devastating loss. A heart that has loved so singularly & lost so purely becomes either fearless or reckless. So when a chance Tinder encounter (*truly* chance because he is only in the same location for a couple of hours when we 'match') reveals himself to be perfect in all ways except that he's married, I don't disqualify him. It is the coldest thing I've ever done - to pursue an intensely sexual encounter with an absolute stranger from whom my heart wants nothing. It also makes me feel alive. We meet and have a spectacular night without an ounce of sleep. I get a cab in the early hours of the morning and as I ride back, there's a smile on my face, a glow in my body and an absolute absence of guilt."
There are stories of women who started swiping right on other women to find where to get the best haircut in New Delhi...
And about seemingly married men joining Tinder.
This illustration is about a woman who hooked up with someone not knowing that he was a virgin, and how she had to deal with a crying man in her bed.
"It is heartening to know there are people who are taking their desires in their own hands (no pun intended)."
You can follow #100IndianTinderTales with complete stories on Facebook and Instagram.
