Disgraced Tinder: dating party in Moscow surprised by the intensity of passions

“Sorry, but for your age group, the event is canceled,” – so I was taken aback, for starters, in a dating agency. They say, “the quorum did not meet” – if you please come another day.

Yes, in any such club people are divided by age into groups, as in a kindergarten. So that, as in the famous film, pensioners in years do not ask “for 27-year-old girls.” Or vice versa… Online reviews condemn this practice and call on the organizers “not to suffer from ageism.”

Arriving at the event an hour earlier, I already find a couple of people in the hall. Life hack for the shy: get a table in the same cafe where the fastdating meeting is scheduled, and pretend that you wandered here by accident.

This was diligently done by a lady in a pretty flowery dress, and then a lean man in a muffler came. The woman soon left, but the gentleman turned out to be a tough nut to crack. I sat there for two hours, watching.

“Hello. Do you have a lock? (element of the game),” I ask him just in case. “No, no, I’m here by accident. I went in, and here is such an interesting event (pause) Would you like to sit down?

Forty minutes before the start, the women change and put on make-up in the toilet. Someone else manages to say puzzles on the phone with the child. However, there are also those who obviously pay little attention to their appearance.

This evening in Moscow, as luck would have it, a snow collapse, a blizzard. Therefore, the general gathering of guests is delayed. There were many men among the latecomers.

Another observation of the “ball collection”: appearing on the doorstep, people begin to greet each other, like old friends in a warm fishing company. They shake hands, happily slap their comrades on the shoulders – they obviously know each other well. Which is a bit annoying. After all, it is assumed that people come here fresh, from the street, so to speak …

The evening is led by a very corpulent lady, all in black and sequins even in her hair. Music in the style of “80s disco”, contests like “guess the tune” or the best group selfie with a glass. With an empty glass – it is prudent not to pour in a cafe.

All those gathered at the entrance are marked: they stick a strip with the name on their clothes and give out the attributes of the game. I’m trying to find out from the girls at the counter what the point is.

“Well, men will come up, sit down, or you can join them. If you match, you will be given chips. And at the competition you can win a prize if you collect a lot of chips. “But what about dating? Isn’t that what people are here for?” I don’t enter. “I’m telling you, men will sit down” …

Finally, after an hour, you can evaluate the audience. Everything is better than you can fear: the middle class, in the domestic sense. Men are like engineers, managers, office workers. The female contingent is more diverse. Someone is like a wealthy housewife in a chronic divorce, like an accountant or a librarian. And someone is on a bayershu who carries goods from Turkey.

While no one is dancing, the men begin to wander around the hall. Some occupy the bar and from there, from a height of position, look around the surroundings. This situation reminded me of a pioneer camp, the very beginning of a disco. When girls want to be invited, and boys need a drink. But you can’t – they don’t pour it either there or here. And the music is the same.

Finally, the evening revives. The first dances begin, and I am once again convinced that there is a certain backbone among the audience, where everyone knows each other. And they are called, in particular, to the dance floor.

Among these people, one athlete with pumped up biceps and a very unhappy face is noticeable. His grief is that that evening was the final of the football world championship. The sufferer sticks out in the middle of the hall and watches football, which is blocked for him by those who came on dates. “Why don’t you watch the final at home?” they ask him. The athletic type mumbles something like “it’s necessary, it’s necessary.”

All tables in the part of the hall reserved for dating are occupied. I sit down, with her permission, next to the woman. The vis-a-vis is a thin petite brunette with a beautiful face. “I came to such a game for the first time,” says Olya. – It was interesting to try. And I’ve been going to classic dating for 5 years now”…

Olya says that she lived abroad for many years and raised her children. And then she divorced and returned to her homeland quite lightly. Lost friends, connections and circle of friends too. “And where to get acquainted – not on the Internet, on the street, in the park?” she asks rhetorically. So he goes on “speed dating” like a job. The beauty had novels, one, with a young man, lasted 3.5 years. Everything would be fine, but they broke up, because the gentleman really wanted children. “And I just grew my own, I just sighed, and what, again? ..”, 45-year-old Olya shares her experiences.

Watching over time the behavior of the public, it becomes clear who is here for what. An example half, and among them mostly men, go just to hang out. Oleg, for example, whom I asked in the forehead: “What are you doing here?” Well, obviously the person has no problems either with self-esteem or with communication.

“I am resting here,” Oleg answered. Like, the atmosphere is pleasant, and where else in Moscow can a person at the age of 60 hang out in peace. “Here I go sometimes.” But even from meeting someday a beautiful stranger, Yuri does not promise, he has no family.

There were also men who obviously came to get acquainted, but have some psychological problems. Such people crumple for a long time, and when they decide, they try to sit down for a start with a simpler woman. I walk past one of them, he blurted out: “Let’s try, what if they give a chip?” “Why do you need these chips at all? – I’m interested. “Didn’t you come here to get acquainted?” The gentleman is immediately embarrassed, moves away and mutters something like “what if I win a car” …

And the prize that will be presented as a result of all this collection of chips and contests, the omniscient Olya whispered, is a gift bottle of some kind of alcohol. Although fun still bring with them. This, two hours later, turns out to be circling with a squealing lady in her arms, and the state of some of those present.

We didn’t get a prize. Having added the chips, we got 19. And the champions dragged them in handfuls, obviously collecting them from several tables. Olya, who was about to leave with me, was asked by several men at once: where to? “Yes, I’ll just go out and then come back,” the diva smiled mysteriously, rushing, in fact, to the subway.

Women like Olya dream of catching the main prize at such parties. She already knows many people here, about the same Yuri told me that he was “just a repairman for washing machines.” But she became very animated when, at the end of the event, a black-haired and strange-looking man appeared in the hall. “Oh look, he’s an English teacher, he was at a dating last Friday. He lives with his mother.”

In principle, it is reasonable, immediately, without rose-colored glasses, to select an equal for yourself. However, I did not manage to notice a single pair during the evening.