Navaratri the beginning of the dating season?

Colourful canopies, twinkling lights, Bollywood chartbuster music, Dandiya Raas, the best of ethnic dressing and a lot of eye-contact, of course! The much-awaited Navratri season also translates into a festival of dating, where young adults indulge in a lot of romantic exchanges on all nine days. While the look-your-best factor serves as a major stimulant here, using the social platform as a playground for courtship is fast turning into a favourite trend among young adults.In the run-up to the festive season, We delve into what it to takes to wooing and who are the trendsetters…
Create the impact
Needless to say, makeup and clothing are the areas that garner most attention here. “Kohled eyes and bold lips do the trick in most cases,” says makeup and grooming expert Zorain Khaleeli, adding, “Youngsters, particularly girls, work a lot on accentuating their facial features. Eye-to-eye contact is what everyone concentrates on, so naturally, eye makeup experiments reach a peak during the festive season, especially for girls.” Meanwhile, boys too spend time on themselves to look confident and stamp their presence in the attractive-men bandwagon and leave a good impression among girls. They go that extra mile by getting into some skincare regime or as minimal as shaping their eyebrows ahead of the festivities.
A matrimonial meet?
Bollywood films and foot-tapping numbers are the pulse of dandiya nights. But if you think only boys and girls are looking at each other’s moves, you would probably be wrong. “The Navaratri season is very much like a matrimonial meet, where parents and elders would be on the look-out for the best match for their ‘eligible’ sons and daughters. And, of course, the good looking ones are shortlisted to take things ahead,” says Kannada actress Manvitha Harish, whose favourite dandiya number is Ayo Re Maro Dholna. “Celebrating dandiya or garba nights are more of a North Indian culture, which has now turned into an urban festive trend, mostly seen in cities. For us, Navratri is still a very religious thing, where rituals are given more importance,” says the actress.
The joy of meeting friends
“Dandiya nights are all about celebrations and meeting new friends. The festive season gives you the opportunity to look your best. I love putting together my own outfits for the evenings,” says Meghna Bopanna, a college-goer.