I went on a blind date with 5 people…

You know those nerves before a blind date The clenched tummy and anxious internal monologue ldquoWhat if theyrsquore weird What if they think Irsquom weird What will we talk aboutrdquoNow what if we told you we signed up for a blind date with five people No this is not a Draupadi and paanch Pandav situation this was to be a date to help one make new friendsLast week wersquod chanced upon an Instagram ad for a new app TimeLeft which seeks to fight ldquobigcity lonelinessrdquo by connecting strangers over dinner every week The hope is that you connect and find new friends or who knows even romance Itrsquos not that we lack friends wersquore lucky to have a tightknit circle of friends most of whom live in the same city and wersquove all been friends for over a decade But maybe thatrsquos the problemmdashwe couldnrsquot remember the last time wersquod made a new friend outside of workTimeLeft founder Maxime Barbier envisioned the app as a way to get people off their phones and out in the world making real connections Ironically it is doomscrolling that has brought us to his app which has just launched in India starting with Mumbai and Bengaluru The app is being used across 62 other countries so it clearly worksWe register on Monday and learn that our dinner on Wednesday night is to be the very first TimeLeft session in the country Itrsquos only on the morning of the session that we get a message informing us our dinner date is to take place in Colaba at a restaurant wersquove never heard of Flavours located at the Electric House We get there and the sinking feeling in our gut intensifies Therersquos no one from the app to guide us through this new experienceInstead we enter and tell the maitrersquod to lead us to the ldquoTimeLeft tablerdquo Then we discover the restaurant has no bar How are we going to make conversation without alcohol as a social lubricantMy worry turns out to be illfounded Almost instantly the group seems to hit it off and conversation bounces from dating to work to travel to why Bandrarsquos been completely dug up First we meet ldquoFellow Introvertrdquo a public relations executive As the others start trickling in we meet Benoit a French software developer passing through India Minoti a business executive at an MNC and ldquoFinance Brordquo The sixth person has flaked on usI soon realise that this is nothing like meeting people on a dating app or at a conference Everyone is here because they have chosen to be so theyrsquore already open to getting to know each other And wersquore all from different walks of life so therersquos plenty to discover throughout the evening For instance the table is immediately guffawing over the revelation that Benoit Call me Ben BEN he says is working on a ldquoloyalty testrdquo app to catch philandering girlfriends or boyfriends ina honeytrap and see if they succumb to temptationTalk then turns to dating and Ben tells us about an app hersquos been using in India to find dates for threesomesMinoti reveals shersquos engagedmdashto our congratulationsmdashand adds ldquoI signed up for TimeLeft because itrsquos the only app designed for making friends not dating I just wanted to meet new people outside of work and my own circlerdquo We all concur itrsquos nice to be able to meet new people without expectationsNot all of it is pleasant though Barely 15 minutes into the interaction while wersquore talking about a Womenrsquos Day story Sunday midday did last week highlighting issues women face while juggling career family and hobbies Finance Bro points to us and says ldquoI bet your story said men are the problem You seem like someone who hates menrdquoA common gripe we all had was the restaurant location Bandra or Andheri would have been better for all of us And after all that travel it was a bit disappointing to find a limited menu and no booze Still we were pleasantly surprised to realise that we didnrsquot miss alcohol conversation was flowing freely on its own We didnrsquot even need the conversation starter game offered by the app Idle curiosity did prompt us to check out the QampA game although when we saw the kind of questions includedmdashIf you were an animal what kind would you bemdashwe promptly decided we were better off on our ownAnd thatrsquos the beauty of TimeLeft If this were on DMs the conversation could have petered out for any number of reasonsmdashawkward silences boring profile pictures or other distractions Here each of us made a conscious decision to get to know each other over the span of a mealThe true test of course is whether we keep in touch afterwards Nearly all of us exchanged phone numbers and Instagram handles before parting ways and we even have plans to meet again in a couple of weeks Herersquos to new friends How to registerParticipants can subscribe to the app for a month Rs 1099 up to six months Rs 583 per month This makes them eligible to attend a dinner every WednesdayFood and beverage expenses are separate and you can select a price range yoursquore comfortable