- I like girls that have a solid,
decent education background.
I realize that looks can only go so far.
My current dating profile tagline is
I will kill the spider for you.
It's so dumb, but it works.
- One thing that turns me on is
when the guy is able to make me laugh.
I'm spiritual, creative, I'm not interested in hookups
or men who are obsessed with social media.
- Your name is Preeti
and this is your story.
You are 24 years old.
For work, you're a admin/office job,
along those realms.
You grew up in New York City
and your cultural or ethnic background is Indian.
- So, my name is Shalyni
and I am 31 years old.
I am a mental health therapist.
I grew up in Fort Myers, Florida
and I am Indian.
One right.
- Your name is Raju and this is your story.
You are 34 years old.
For work, you are a financial analyst.
You grew up in North India.
Your cultural or ethnic background is Indian.
- My name is Shai.
I am 30 years old.
For work, I was in finance,
but now I'm doing stand up comedy.
I grew up in Queens, New York City
and my background is actually from Bangladesh.
- Oh, cool.
- Yeah, almost.
- For work, I initially thought something artistic
by the way you dress, but then,
for some reason, I went with financial analyst instead.
- Good call.
- Why do you think I was an office worker?
- I assumed that you worked in the office
just based on your dressing, honestly.
And you look pretty well put together,
like you just came outta office,
you gotta put on your dress,
then you came to happy hour here.
- Oh, okay.
- That's what it kinda seemed.
- I'm passionate about spirituality and meditation,
and I'm actually in the process
of becoming a meditation teacher.
When negative situations arise
I'm able to handle it a lot better
and not react so immediately.
- Growing up, I'm not gonna lie, it was tough.
My parents, they wanted to me to be a doctor or an engineer,
and I was in finance
and now I'm getting into stand up comedy.
This is my first few months,
so I know I have a long road ahead of me.
- Your go-to profile photo.
I think like a nice photo from a wedding
where you're all dressed up.
One thing that turns you on is a nice smile.
If you could pick a new nickname, I think you'd pick Maria.
I don't know why.
You look like a Maria.
You are not open to dating people of different religions.
What you're looking for in a match is...
I put respect, honesty, loyalty.
- My go-to profile photo.
In the past I've used a wedding profile photo that I had,
and one thing that does turn me on is maturity.
A new name I would pick for myself would be Bella,
and I am open to dating people of different religions.
What I'm looking for in a match is
definitely someone who's funny, adventurous, and worldly.
So, your go-to profile photo
is a photo from one of your comedy shows.
One thing that turns you on is beauty.
If you could pick a new name, you would pick Raymond.
You are open to dating people of different religions.
What you're looking for in a match is a good cook,
someone who's loyal, and homely.
- I don't know about the profile picture with the comedy.
I'm still in the beginning stages.
I don't think my confidence is there yet
to expose to the whole world. - Okay.
- One thing that turns me on.
I think you said beauty, right?
- Yeah.
- I mean, I'm not gonna lie.
It's true.
If you could pick a new nickname, I would pick Rocky.
Damn, I wasn't expecting you to laugh at my nickname.
I am open to dating in other religions,
but it has to be a real relationship,
then I want to give it a try.
What I'm looking for in a match is loyalty,
honesty, and respect.
Initially, I would try to go for a Muslim lady,
but it's flexible depending on the situation.
- So I was raised Catholic,
but I don't exactly subscribe to the faith.
I would call myself spiritual,
and I respect people who are religious.
- Yeah? - There's nothing wrong
with it at all. - Right.
- I accept all people as they are.
- You do believe in God or you don't?
- I believe there is a God, yes.
- You believe there is a God.
- Yes. - Okay.
- Whether you call it God, spirit, Allah.
- I think you classify it as atheist, I believe,
where you don't believe in... - No, spiritual.
- Okay, spirituality is another thing.
- Atheists, they don't believe in anything.
- Then what's agnostic?
- Agnostic, they believe there's something.
- So that's you then. - No, I'm spiritual.
- Spirituality is a actual thing though?
- Yes, it is. - Oh, I didn't know that.
I thought it was one or the other, so spirituality.
- Yes. - Okay, cool.
Alright.
Who am I kidding?
I probably don't do most of the things my religion says
for me to do. - Pray five times a day.
- Yeah, I definitely don't pray five times a day.
For example, drinking.
- Right. - It's completely forbidden,
- It's true. - but I go out with my friends
and, obviously, you have one or two drinks or whatever.
But, you know, those... - Of water.
- Of water, yes.
- My parents are from South India.
They tried to impose
their cultural and Catholic values on me
to a point where I had a hard time accepting my culture,
and now my mindset has changed.
- Deep down inside I am a religious person
'cause it does bring me calm and peace,
and believe it or not,
the Christian's God they actually pray to
and the Muslim's, the God they pray to, it's the same God.
A lot of people, they don't believe that,
but that's the truth.
- The right age to get married is 32, I feel like.
You would not be okay with an open marriage.
I think that question just means dating while being married.
- Mhm. - Okay, definitely not okay.
You would let your parents pick a date for you.
- I said the right age to get married is 40.
- Damn, that's late.
- I would not be okay with an open marriage.
I've thought about the idea, but no,
I wouldn't. - Wow.
- I would not let my parents pick a date for me,
so I'll go? - Yeah, go for it.
- Alright.
The right age to get married is 35.
You would not be okay with an open marriage.
You would let your parents pick a date for you.
- The right age that I wanna get married is
anywhere from 32 to 35.
I think that's a good time.
I would not be okay
with an open marriage.
I'm surprised that you said that
you were kind of even thinking about it.
I feel like if you're married to someone and it's open,
then it's like the other person
is cheating on you, basically.
- Well, you have to have a mutual
understanding. - Understanding.
- I've met people - Oh, yeah?
- who have had open marriages, - Open marriages?
- and just hearing what they had to say
kinda made sense to me.
Don't really think I would actually go there,
but... - Right, who knows?
Okay, alright, I got it.
I would let my parents
choose a date for me,
but that's not saying that I will go on the date.
They have thrown a picture at me over the years or whatever,
and I respectfully declined.
- I think it's sweet that you would
let your parents pick a date for you.
- My sister, she actually got arrange marriage
pretty young, at 18, - Okay.
Oh. - And in New York City.
- Wow.
- No third world, in New York City.
She agreed and they've been married for 15 years
happily, kids, - Holy cow.
- and my parents straight up just found him
through mutual friends and stuff, and it works out great.
That's why I kind of... - You're open to it.
- I'm open to it, yeah.
- My parents had an arranged marriage
and most of my aunties and uncles had arranged marriages.
I didn't really see any of them work out so smoothly.
My parents are still together just because, culturally,
it doesn't look good
if you get a divorce. - It's kinda forbidden, yeah.
I totally get that, yeah.
I understand.
Alright, I'm excited.
When I first met you I thought that
we are not a match. - Okay.
- I couldn't tell very easily that you were Indian.
Nothing wrong with that,
but then, I always think about
the whole religion thing, honestly,
and I guess I was kinda right.
After getting to know you a lot better
with the conversations,
I think that we are still not a match.
- Okay.
- I think your spirituality
and how you carry yourself with that sense
is you're very open minded and free flowing,
but the whole being open to the open marriage at one point,
I could never do that.
I feel like that's too crazy for me.
- Okay.
- Yeah, so...
- It's not like I really said I would actually do it, but...
- Right, no, I mean, it's...
- No worries.
So when I first saw you
I thought that we are not a match.
Now that I've gotten to know you
I said that
that you are a match.
- Dammit. - It's okay.
No worries.
I can appreciate that you have a fun side to you,
but I can understand that the religion aspect
was pretty important for you
and it's not really important for me.
But, as friends, I think you would be cool.
- Oh yeah, definitely, we could totally just go out
and just be friends.
- Shoot the breeze.
- Shoot the breeze, whatever that means.
- To have fun.
- Okay. - Yeah.
- Alright, yeah, definitely.
Can we shake on it?
Head nod.
- Thank you.
- I mean, what are you doing later?
We can just...
Wanna grab some coffee?
- It's kinda late for coffee,
maybe - Oh yeah, it is.
- we could go for tea?
- Tea, tea time.
Alright, I'm down.
- Okay, cool. - Alright, let's go.
- Alright, let's go.
♪ SoulPancake ♪