Dear Anu; This happened a long time ago. But i still need to get it off my chest. Over 15 years ago i used to chat with a boy Mr. Y on social media/ messenger. Both of us were in early twenties. We used to talk till late nights on messenger and i thought it was more of a one sided thing and i thought i was the only one who was emotionally involved. Until his brother once approached me saying that Mr. Y will never tell me about his real feelings for me since he is incredibly shy and introverted. And whether i wanted to take this forward . Anyway his Dad didnt really approve and Mr. Y didnt know about this either. We continued to chat on messenger and also met a few times but only with friends. We had also exchanged numbers and would send forwarded messages to each other; nothing personal. Over the next year the messenger conversations fizzled out and we would only exchange forwarded messages. He never did ask me out even once. However i heard from common friends that he was saying stuff like i am inundating him with mesages; and how he was really not into me. But he never asked me to stop sending forwarded messages either. One day he messaged me saying that he will be going out of country and then he didnot message me or stay in contact with me for almost a year. I changed my location to another city after a year( work) and did mesage him just updating about my new number. He then got in touch with me; visited me once all by himself( apparently he had some work in this city) and asked me out . I asked him why now and he replied that he had asked a close friend of his; and the friend had adviced him to ask me out. We spent some time together and next day he told me not to tell his other friends that we had met. By this time i was quite fed up and the year that he did a dissapearing act I was seeing someone who was confidant and wasnt afraid of showing his affection for me. So eventually i told Mr. Y that i am seeing someone and then we barely met after this. A year later; on his social media account i saw his conversations with another where he told about his love for a girl and how it did not progress since he never declared his feelings for her. Anyway what i need to know 1) why did he ghost me? 2) If he did love me as his brother proclaimed; why did he boast to his friends that he I was chasing him? 3) is this person narcissist? 4) Did i totally misjudge the situation? Somehow after all these years; I still fell i was misled or wronged and at times i feel that i dodged a bullet! I want someone i.e. You to give me a fresh perspective. We are not in touch now. Sometimes things trouble you later in life and this incident probably is one of those. Would appreciate if you could shed some light. Anju

Dear SD,

Ghosting of a high order.

Why exactly were you anticipating him to give you all the attention?

Why were you craving for validation from someone who you haven’t chatted or met with?

Why did you base so many emotions on a ‘connection’ that wasn’t one in the first place?

Dating apps are an ocean of people who have different needs to be met and distractions are heavy.

Every moment, the mind is seeking an association with a new person in the hope that he or she will be better than the previous one.

How did you expect him to feel the same way as you did at that very moment? Maybe it’s time to introspect what you learned during your sabbatical.

Did you pour enough self-love so that you wouldn’t wait for someone else to love you? If No, then time to step back and validate yourself for ONCE.

You must learn to look at yourself with a fresh pair of eyes, laud yourself and love yourself even more.

Fill yourself with so much care are love that the next time, you are on an APP, it’s for a very good reason and with a lot of confidence that you can hold your space and not get swayed by who is messaging or who isn’t!

Life offers you with so many opportunities to change from within; start right away and as far as this “Ghost Guy”, even if he is back, he will scout around for more greener pastures as far as an unsteady mind goes.

So you possibly might just be one of them. Investing so much time in all of this is straining.

Join groups that meet often and on a common theme and maybe you might find someone interesting and someone who has similar values and ideals as you.

Good luck to a new way of thinking and acting!

Dear AI,

The nature of a virtual relationship can be the way that you have mentioned.

What is being shared virtually may not be reality and it is difficult to spot this.

Now that you know, isn’t it a lesson learned not to rely on anyone outside of you for your own happiness?

Did you have to study hard just so that you fit his choice of ‘successful’ women/girls?

Can you not work hard to live your dreams?

What you lack is self-love! Something that you didn’t focus on because you were working hard to prove how relevant you are in his life so that he chooses you.

Even if this relationship works, it will be his call always and other than strive hard to be in his life, there’s nothing that will grow in it.

Moreover, isn’t it a red flag when he revealed that he has been in a relationship for over a year?

Time to get back to yourself. Value yourself more, love yourself more…if you don’t, no one else will!

Start every morning doing these little things:

• in gratitude for being alive
• list down 3 things that you love about yourself
• do one thing that you love at least for 15 minutes everyday
• spend time in Nature
• surround yourself with people that love you

These are tried and tested methods to get you out of a low phase.

Again, love yourself more and yet again!

All the best!