By Aditi Datta
Checked out his biodata? Great.
Filled in the compatibility report? Super.
He loves reading, too? This is perfect!
Wait, he asked you to be his trial girlfriend with all perks included? Yikes! Run as fast as the marathon you said you loved to run!
This delicate love story needs a little intervention, and so Aisle.Co was born.
Aisle.co is a members-only closed group that interested candidates must apply to get into. Membership requests are screened, curated and if you fit the urban professional profile as an eligible Indian over the age of 21 from anywhere in the world, you might just get in.
The application form does ask you about height and weight, but it also checks in about tattoos and piercings. Because so many of us love cinema, music, pets and travel, the form allows you to rate your interest level on a sliding scale rather than the standard yes/no format which is far too simplistic for such tricky dynamics.
Share your favourite cuisine, music genre, profession and ahem, income, for a really honest view of yourself. It might come across as a bit intrusive but to be fair, anyone setting you up in the real world is likely to make such assumptions based on your lifestyle, travel habits and nature of work in any case. The good news is that they don’t filter people out based on this – members are in control of what matters to them and how much, including their opinions on conceiving versus adoption. Nothing we don't love about this so far.
We spoke with one of the founders, Able Joseph, who is a former victim of the merciless sign-up-by-mum on matrimony websites. Their secret formula for curation has meant that {a} nobody has reported any untoward behaviour, {b} guys have sometimes written in asking to be connected as a friend to someone who feels like a brother from another mother, and {c} three weddings are already being planned! For a platform that's half a year old and contains a handpicked 5000+ members, that's not bad at all.
We like that there is a native messaging system, so you don’t actually have to share personal contact details in the early stages of chatting each other up.
We SUPER like the fact that members have to pay INR 2000 to send up to three invitations to people they may like to get to know better. It’s not cheap to be a Romeo – good.
We’re not usually for paraphrasing but we couldn’t possibly say it any better than the FAQ section on Aisle.Co’s website: If Guns’n’Roses makes you think of either guns or roses, this one’s not for you.
Baaki, idhar aao to walk down the aisle.
Notes in our Little Black Book | Aisle.Co is a discerning web platform that allows singles to mingle, for young urban Indian professionals from around the world. Membership applications are painstakingly curated, and the current user base stands at about 5000+ members from 30+ countries. Not a Shaadi nor a Tinder, Aisle.co prompts enrolled members to pay in order to contact people they’d like to get to know, which enforces informed, selective clicking.
For more information: Click here
Or check out their Facebook page: Here
