BANGALORE: With so much of talk about culture and Valentine's Day in recent times, 94.3 Radio One, the station for the fataafat generation has brought in an interesting twist to the conventional boy-meets-girl tradition.

Radio One, Bangalore's own local hit music station has worked to bring Speed Dating to the city. For the uninitiated, Speed Dating is a concept that was tried out for the first time in 1998 in the United States (where else?), where people in large cities, who led mostly mundane lives outside of their hectic work-lives got to meet people with similar outlook.

Men and women are rotated to meet each other over a series of short "dates", usually lasting from 3 to 8 minutes depending on the organization running the event. At the end of each interval, the organizer rings a bell or clinks a glass to signal the participants to move on to the next date. At the end of the event participants submit to the organizers a list of who they would like to provide their contact information to. If there is a match, contact information is forwarded to both parties. Contact information cannot be traded during the initial meeting, in order to reduce pressure (especially on women) to accept or reject a suitor to their face.

Right through this week, Radio One will take entries through the on-air shows and select twenty lucky guys and girls. The forty will then proceed to participate in the actual event at Nyks on Thursday, February 12, 2009. Three minutes would be given to each of them to talk to each other and the rest as they say, could be history. And if the man of your heart missed the show, offer the ones at hand a warm hug and get yourself a life-long friend.

To spice up the fun, there would a special performance and workshop by the GPD dance academy. Youngsters can hit the floor with their newly-found partners and can find their groove with DJ Sameer, RJ Prithvi and RJ Anjaan. There will also be prizes for those who are truly made for each other.

"Dating fataafat is a fabulous manifestation of Radio One's DNA. The fataafat generation wants money, love and fame fataafat, and all of our properties aim to deliver these. The event is particularly relevant today, considering brouhaha about culture, created caused by people who insist on living in the Dark Ages," says Shyju Varkey, Head-Radio One, Bangalore.

"It would be exciting to see the youngsters getting along with each other and set the stage for a great Valentine's Day," added Shyju.