Single, 30-something – and running out of time?

Netflix reportedly lost a million subscribers in the second quarter of this year as the cost of living crisis bit – but so far I’m hanging in there. I came for Stranger Things 4. I stayed for the second season of my ultimate guilty pleasure: Indian Matchmaking.

It’s a reality show in which Mumbai-based matchmaker Sima Taparia – ‘Sima Aunty’ to her clients– travels across India and the US, making matches for wealthy singletons. Each episode follows a similar pattern. We see successful and glamorous men and women in their 30s living their best life – drinks with friends, sessions in the park with their personal trainer, tours of their chicken-farm machinery business – before they admit to camera that they’d really like to meet that special someone.

Sima Aunty arrives to hear their list of ‘preferences’ – what they’re looking for in a partner – and to meet with their families. The client is handed the ‘bio-data’ of a couple of potential matches to select from. Some time later, the cameras return to film the first – usually awkward – date. Nine times out of ten they decide to ‘just be friends’. Maybe it’s the film crew.