When She Disappears to the Bathroom, She's Not Coming Back
The Meat Market podcast is back with another juicy episode, this time diving into the wild world of modern dating—cultural clashes, therapy lingo, and all the awkwardness in between. This week’s guest, Varesh, an Indian-American CEO of a healthcare startup, spills the tea on navigating love in today’s digital age, and let’s just say… it’s complicated.
Varesh grew up bouncing between countries thanks to his diplomat dad, which gave him a pretty unique take on dating across cultures. Turns out, while people are pretty much the same everywhere, the expectations can vary wildly. He shared stories about American women expecting men to cover expenses like hair, makeup, and even childcare before a first date. (Yes, seriously.) The whole group agreed—dating shouldn’t feel like a financial transaction.
But dating isn’t just tricky because of money—it’s also the phones. Varesh described a night at a bar where everyone was glued to their screens, making actual human connection basically impossible. Even with a million dating apps at our fingertips, meaningful connections seem harder to come by. Swiping might be easy, but building a real relationship? Not so much.
Then there’s the rise of therapy talk in dating. Terms like “love bombing,” “gaslighting,” and “attachment styles” are everywhere. Varesh and the hosts debated whether this means we’re getting emotionally smarter—or just adding another layer of BS to the dating game. Just because someone knows the terms doesn’t mean they’ve actually worked on themselves, right?
Things got real when Varesh opened up about dating someone with different religious beliefs. Despite having a strong connection, those deeper differences eventually became impossible to ignore. It was a reminder that love alone doesn’t always fix everything—some gaps are just too big to bridge.
Varesh also dropped a pretty solid framework for figuring out relationship potential: the “four dimensions” of compatibility—physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. His take? Hitting all four is rare, but if you’re at two and a half, you might be onto something. It’s all about knowing what really matters to you and being okay with some imperfections.
Funny, honest, and packed with dating wisdom, this episode is basically a roadmap for navigating the chaos of modern love. If you’ve ever wondered why dating feels like a full-time job, this one’s for you.
