Love Hacking in Silicon Valley & Nepal via Skype
Is Skype the new matchmaker? Can a robot inventor find true love in Nepal? Can a Hindu and a Mormon find bliss together? Can you get good karma for just $ 10? Read on…
Tim Heath was a robot inventor living in Silicon Valley, looking for love. Sarita was looking for love too, in her hometown of Nepal. Their paths may never have crossed had it not been for LDS Planet, a worldwide dating website for Mormons. Yes, Tim is a Mormon, and Sarita is a Hindu who’s recently converted to Christianity.
In the old days, the two may never have met. Sarita would probably have been shown suitable boys by a traditional matchmaker in Nepal but now the rules of the game have changed. The new matchmakers are the online dating website and Skype.
The couple conducted their courtship on Skype and got to know each other virtually before they decided to meet up in the real world. After three months of Skype romancing, Tim flew to Nepal and met Sarita. The next day they got married in a traditional Hindu ceremony! And fortunately for them, in this age of social media, there was a filmmaker waiting to document their love story. The result is ‘Love Hacking’ – a 25 minute documentary made by Jenni Nelson as part of her MFA degree in Documentary Film and Video at Stanford University.
Nelson is a documentary filmmaker in the San Francisco Bay Area and last year she completed three short documentaries. Her film ‘Tightly Knit’, which explores the quirky subculture of knitters and yarn bombing, premiered at the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival.
Love Hacking and Good Karma
Right now ‘Love Hacking’ is awaiting completion. Writes Nelson: “Much like hacking together robots out of cell phones and vacuum cleaners, Tim applies open source and hacker philosophy to marriage as he puts together unexpected pieces in order to build his new life. ‘Love Hacking’ is a contemporary love story where Mormons and Hindus come together in a journey of faith, technology, and marriage.”
This is one love story with a happy ending. Tim and Sarita are now married and are currently living in Kathmandu, Nepal. I asked Jenni Nelson, would their marriage be considered love or arranged, since they got married the very next day after actually meeting?
“Tim and Sarita consider their marriage a love marriage instead of an arranged marriage because they got to know each other online before their wedding,” says Nelson, who has somewhat become their cinematic biographer. “They chose each other. However, they both acknowledge that they each had to borrow from their different cultural backgrounds.”
What are the couple’s future plans and do they see themselves as Hindus or Mormons? Says Nelson, “They plan to settle in the United States but are currently awaiting Sarita’s visa approval, which could take up to one year. In the meantime, they are spending time with Sarita’s family and Tim has been doing some guest lectures on his robots at several universities in Kathmandu. Both Tim and Sarita are members of the Mormon church and actively attend a congregation in Kathmandu.”
I could not help asking Nelson what she thought of this whirlwind courtship and marriage. “I have learned a lot from Tim and Sarita, especially after spending months in my editing suite reviewing the experience over and over again,” she says. “ It requires a lot of trust and humility in order to make that level of commitment, especially through a courtship that takes place entirely over Skype.”
It should be fun to see this Skype romance but before that can happen Jenni Nelson needs to raise the funds to complete this movie which is in post-production. Now a few hundred dollars separates this film from being completed and seen by the world. And that brings us to the good karma part.
Nelson has made the completion of the film a Kickstarter project and citizens of the real and virtual world get a chance to earn some good karma by donating some bucks. The film has 119 backers who have contributed a total of $6304 toward the goal of $7000. While a donation of $10 will get you good relationship karma, $500 would raise you to transcendent relationship Karma and $2500 to Celestial relationship Karma and also get you an Associate Producer title in the film credits.
So if you’re feeling altruistic or have the urge to be a film producer or just want to earn some good karma – you might want to shell out some dollars. More details are here. Love Hacking – A Robot Inventor Dating Documentary
