{"id":1115,"date":"2016-07-01T07:51:59","date_gmt":"2016-07-01T07:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=1115"},"modified":"2026-07-17T13:59:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:59:39","slug":"dating-caa-protests-nrc-muslims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1115","title":{"rendered":"We Met, We Marched, We Kissed: Love in the Age of Protests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

O<\/span><\/p>n the morning after Deepika* had hooked up with a nice-looking man off a dating website, she got a nasty little shock. As they said their goodbyes, her one-night stand booked himself a cab and then cursed loudly. He\u2019d got a Muslim cab driver. <\/span>\n\nNo matter what singletons have you believe, hooking up in the city is not the party it seems and sex is not <\/span>all<\/span><\/i> about the lay. For an act that demands you to strip down \u2013 it\u2019s still the mental nakedness where you find yourself more vulnerable. The urban jungle hides creatures with mindsets you\u2019d never believe.<\/span>\n\nDeepika, who is openly bisexual, has had her fair share of them. Men who are racist, or openly amused by feminism. Women who have told her to keep all this ideology aside and talk \u201crationally\u201d. Each time she has hooked up with men and women who seem so far removed from her own personality, it has left her with a feeling of abject self-hatred. There is a lingering feeling that she had sunk to a new low every time for not maintaining her integrity or compromising on who she really is for the sake of a relationship. <\/span>\n\n\u201cIt isn\u2019t just my sexuality, it\u2019s a lot of things I believe in strongly \u2013 equality, feminism, gay rights, honesty, unity\u2026\u201d Where do souls seeking like-minded people go in today\u2019s world, Deepika has often wondered.<\/span>\n\nThe answer came to her the morning she met Sanjana*: Protest marches. Like the anti-CAA protests or the annual Pride parade.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nWith a horde of information at our fingertips on the choicest singles around us, everything from weight, height, religion, hobbies, pet names, and interests\u2026 we still have no idea about the kind of person we\u2019ll be sleeping with. Is he kind to animals? Is she a racist? Will he fight for what he believes is right? Does she think Muslims should \u201cgo to Pakistan\u201d? <\/span>\n\nA protest march takes care of several of these filters. It is full of people with good intent and a willingness to back it up with at least some action. It\u2019s so much stronger a filter than say age or which city you come from. \u201cNot to take away from its seriousness,\u201d\u00a0Deepika tells me, \u201cbut it is <\/span>so<\/span><\/i> hard to find like-minded people.\u201d You might be the only one in your office who finds an ad sexist or has a problem with the NRC, while everyone around you rolls their eyes. And then you meet someone like Sanjana at a protest, who completely agrees with you.\u201d <\/span>\n

At a protest, you have some common cause, a shared passion already in place. Then it\u2019s up to you to extend that passion and take it into more interesting spaces.<\/blockquote>\nDeepika met Sanjana on the morning of the protest against the CAA in last month. <\/span>\n\n\u201cI was in Bangalore and nobody around me seemed to care much. But then I saw an event on Facebook for a protest and rushed off. Over the placards and the flags, I saw her. She had short hair with red highlights, and she had such a loud voice man!\u201d <\/span>\n\nDeepika inched towards her through the crowd, stood beside her for the remaining protest, and as the crowd began to fizzle out, they began talking. Sanjana was open-minded about small things, as driven by the craziness descending on our country, and \u201cknew so much more about CAA\u201d than Deepika. <\/span>\n\n\u201cWe chatted away on the footpath until the sun went down and then I asked her if she wanted to come over since my apartment was close by,\u201d Deepika said. \u201cWe rolled a joint, sat in my balcony, and smoked\u00a0 together. We spoke for the rest of the evening, and we ordered food before we first kissed.\u201d<\/span>\n\nWhat sets apart dating and hooking up through protest marches is that you get to skip a bunch of checks on Tinder, OkCupid, Aisle \u2013 which is great, since those checks don\u2019t end up meaning much anyway. And you don\u2019t have to start from scratch with a stranger at a bar or a blind date. At a protest, you have some common cause, a shared passion already in place. Then it\u2019s up to you to extend that passion and take it into more interesting spaces.<\/span>\n\nWe live in a world where phone apps and websites <\/span>supposedly help<\/span><\/a> \u201cbreak down\u201d the barriers and get straight to the point. But they actually end up making things worse. \u201cLove is so difficult for our generation, even though we have such powerful tools of communication, no? People don\u2019t even want to talk a little extra, because oh no, that means you are serious and you want to marry them,\u201d complained Deepika. <\/span>\n\n\"Kiss\n
\n

What sets apart dating and hooking up through protest marches is that you get to skip a bunch of checks on Tinder, OkCupid, and Aisle.<\/p>\n

NurPhoto\/ Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\nBut protests are different. You want to talk. You want to be serious. People are there to make a point to an opposing force. And more than anything else, people are there for each other, for a cause they truly believe in. \u201cSo many of my friends ask what the point is. You went for this, you went for that, did it <\/span>change anything<\/span><\/a>? But it does. You meet people. You discuss issues. You share the despair. And then you share the dream.\u201d<\/span>\n\nFor that one day of protest-passion, Deepika was completely head-over-heels in love with Sanjana. Just for those few hours. \u201cWe never met again, and that\u2019s okay.\u201d For Deepika it was about that moment \u2013 two girls maddened by a law that made no sense to them. Two girls, who could not explain what was happening to the world around them. Two girls, lonely. Two girls, who suddenly understood each other. A flash of anger, a flash of despair, a flash of hope, and then\u2026 a flash of love. \u00a0<\/span>\n\nThis time without the self-hatred. <\/span>\n\n* Names have been changed to protect privacy.<\/span><\/i>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have a glut of dating apps, but no idea about the political leanings of a person we\u2019ll be hooking up with. A march like the anti-CAA protest can take care of several filters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":1118,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-love-and-sex"],"yoast_head":"\nWe Met, We Marched, We Kissed: Love in the Age of Protests<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We have a glut of dating apps, but no idea about the political leanings of a person we\u2019ll be hooking up with. A march like the anti-CAA protest can take care of several filters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1115\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We Met, We Marched, We Kissed: Love in the Age of Protests\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We have a glut of dating apps, but no idea about the political leanings of a person we\u2019ll be hooking up with. A march like the anti-CAA protest can take care of several filters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1115\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arr\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-01T07:51:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-17T13:59:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1498715186.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1520\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"850\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Priya Desai\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"We Met, We Marched, We Kissed: Love in the Age of Protests\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"We have a glut of dating apps, but no idea about the political leanings of a person we\u2019ll be hooking up with. A march like the anti-CAA protest can take care of several filters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Priya Desai\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1115#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1115\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Priya Desai\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/afc66d4ae1b8f5923b2dedb2920a13b7\"},\"headline\":\"We Met, We Marched, We Kissed: Love in the Age of Protests\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-01T07:51:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-17T13:59:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1115\"},\"wordCount\":1017,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1115#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1498715186.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Love and Sex\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1115\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1115\",\"name\":\"We Met, We Marched, We Kissed: Love in the Age of Protests\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1115#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1115#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1498715186.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-01T07:51:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-17T13:59:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/afc66d4ae1b8f5923b2dedb2920a13b7\"},\"description\":\"We have a glut of dating apps, but no idea about the political leanings of a person we\u2019ll be hooking up with. A march like the anti-CAA protest can take care of several filters.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1115#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1115\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1115#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1498715186.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1498715186.jpg\",\"width\":1520,\"height\":850},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?p=1115#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"We Met, We Marched, We Kissed: Love in the Age of Protests\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/\",\"name\":\"Arr\u00e9\",\"description\":\"In every person lies a creator and in every creator, an enterprise.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/afc66d4ae1b8f5923b2dedb2920a13b7\",\"name\":\"Priya Desai\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ccd272e87234e45fb1ef389a6c2d218d31bb1756c7f81197796db96f5ee379b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ccd272e87234e45fb1ef389a6c2d218d31bb1756c7f81197796db96f5ee379b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ccd272e87234e45fb1ef389a6c2d218d31bb1756c7f81197796db96f5ee379b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Priya Desai\"},\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/?author=154\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"We Met, We Marched, We Kissed: Love in the Age of Protests","description":"We have a glut of dating apps, but no idea about the political leanings of a person we\u2019ll be hooking up with. A march like the anti-CAA protest can take care of several filters.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1115","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"We Met, We Marched, We Kissed: Love in the Age of Protests","og_description":"We have a glut of dating apps, but no idea about the political leanings of a person we\u2019ll be hooking up with. A march like the anti-CAA protest can take care of several filters.","og_url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1115","og_site_name":"Arr\u00e9","article_published_time":"2016-07-01T07:51:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-07-17T13:59:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1520,"height":850,"url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1498715186.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Priya Desai","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"We Met, We Marched, We Kissed: Love in the Age of Protests","twitter_description":"We have a glut of dating apps, but no idea about the political leanings of a person we\u2019ll be hooking up with. A march like the anti-CAA protest can take care of several filters.","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Priya Desai","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1115#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1115"},"author":{"name":"Priya Desai","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/afc66d4ae1b8f5923b2dedb2920a13b7"},"headline":"We Met, We Marched, We Kissed: Love in the Age of Protests","datePublished":"2016-07-01T07:51:59+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-17T13:59:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1115"},"wordCount":1017,"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1115#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1498715186.jpg","articleSection":["Love and Sex"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1115","url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1115","name":"We Met, We Marched, We Kissed: Love in the Age of Protests","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1115#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1115#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1498715186.jpg","datePublished":"2016-07-01T07:51:59+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-17T13:59:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/afc66d4ae1b8f5923b2dedb2920a13b7"},"description":"We have a glut of dating apps, but no idea about the political leanings of a person we\u2019ll be hooking up with. A march like the anti-CAA protest can take care of several filters.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1115#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1115"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1115#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1498715186.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1498715186.jpg","width":1520,"height":850},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1115#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"We Met, We Marched, We Kissed: Love in the Age of Protests"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#website","url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/","name":"Arr\u00e9","description":"In every person lies a creator and in every creator, an enterprise.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/afc66d4ae1b8f5923b2dedb2920a13b7","name":"Priya Desai","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ccd272e87234e45fb1ef389a6c2d218d31bb1756c7f81197796db96f5ee379b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ccd272e87234e45fb1ef389a6c2d218d31bb1756c7f81197796db96f5ee379b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ccd272e87234e45fb1ef389a6c2d218d31bb1756c7f81197796db96f5ee379b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Priya Desai"},"url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?author=154"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1498715186.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1117,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions\/1117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}