SUNDER RAMU: This is the idea of the 365-dates
is to go out and try and meet people, listen to their stories; I’m genuinely not a Casanova,
I swear I’m not.
SUNDER RAMU: So, I’m Sunder and, by profession, I’m a photographer, I’m an actor
and I also earn money playing football sometimes.
SUNDER RAMU: I love the colour black, I love dogs, I love travelling and apparently I really
like women.
COMM: Sunder Ramu has been trying to instigate social change through dating hundreds of women.
SUNDER RAMU: There is so much violence against
woman that has been reported; I’m sure it’s always been there but because of the reporting,
you know and because it’s in your face all the time. This is the process I think all
of us have gone through it where you want to fix everything and then you end up fixing
nothing. So, as like I’m going to go out on a journey and try and figure out what we
can do. We as a culture are moving away from arranged marriages overall but we really don’t
know what dating is because it seems like a western concept.
SUNDER RAMU: And the idea was to go out on
a date with a different person, 365 different people and try and see all the inequalities
towards women and try and see how we can, you know, fix it.
COMM: To find his dates, Sunder posted about
his quest online.
SUNDER RAMU: Initially all my friends were also like, “You’re mental, what’s wrong
with you? You’re a well respected guy in the city and you know like why you’re going
out and doing some nonsense like this?” Only because I want to break down the perceptions
of what dating is. But this is not dating at all. This is, I’m not a dating king,
this is not dating, this is me going out on a meal conversation with somebody. This maybe
sound like this big Casanova like, ‘I’m a dating king’. Honestly, like, 90% of the
time you will see me, it will be like I’ll be sitting alone in the restaurant and eating.
SUNDER RAMU: My date for today, you know she
is a yoga teacher, she used to be a dancer; we have danced together long back and she
is one of my dearest friends but we haven’t met in a long time. Her life has been so busy.
So I’m super excited, because there is so much to catch up on.
DIVYA ROLLA: Sunder, I’ve known forever.
So, Sunder I met for the first time in 2000, almost two decades back.
DIVYA ROLLA: What I like about this whole
thing is; one, the only motivation of this is a conversation, just getting to know each other
SUNDER RAMU: So, it’s not just about dating, it’s about...
DIVYA ROLLA: Of course, yeah. SUNDER RAMU: ...you know it’s about like
a lot more than that.
DIVYA ROLLA: I think both sexes have their share of pitfalls when it comes to dating
because for men the women are always so on card that it’s just so difficult to have
a conversation with a lady. I’m sitting with one person for a whole hour, it’s amazing
how much you suddenly get to know that person, so, it’s fabulous.
SUNDER RAMU: The question that I’ve been
asked a lot of time is, you know, “Are you looking for love?” The truth is I’m looking
for love all the time; all of us are. I would love to meet some of girls that I’ve met
on these dates; I’d like to meet them again. Some of them have become my friends, some
of them I have massive crushes on. I guess that’s a problem with 300 like, it’s very
difficult to narrow down to one.
COMM: One of the premises of his dates is to ask the women to pay and in return he has
been following their ask up by donating money to small charities.
SUNDER RAMU: Every month I go to different
organisations and try and sponsor meals. So, it could be old age homes, it could be HIV-affected
children, it could be palliative care, you know, cancer patients or it could be children
in an orphanage or you know, or any organisation.
SUNDER RAMU: One of the ladies that I went out, Chandra, she is a garbage collector,
drainage cleaner and what a fantastic time.
SUNDER RAMU: One of them is someone who sells watermelons and she is, you should meet her;
she is a fabulous person, right! Why I’m doing this is because I feel it’s really,
really important for everybody to have an equal opportunity to do anything in life.
I believe in equality in all forms, not just gender. I think you should have equality regardless
of class, you should have equality regardless of like anything. I’m glad I started doing this.
This is a fantastic journey for me. I feel more charged up now than I did before I started
the journey. So, it’s a great place to be.