If We Didn’t Have Marriage Would We Still Have Dating?

As a 52-year-old married woman I spend a lot of time imagining how much more fun my life would be if I were single. In my imaginary world I am a lean, mean, Tinder-wielding machine. Matching and un-matching with wild abandon.

An abandon I wish I had exhibited in my 20s when I was actually single. But I could never have been that girl because I came of age in India. And we Indians are culturally averse to many things, amongst them are wearing bikinis, meeting for brunch, and going on dates.
Dating is a western concept, so western that when I looked up the meaning online, I found “to discover or guess how old something is”. See! Google search protects us when we can’t protect ourselves.

But a mildly deeper dive revealed that dating can also be a stage in a relationship in which individuals engage in an activity together, often with the intention of evaluating each other’s suitability as a partner in a future intimate relationship.