"Hey sweetheart, would you like a ppm (price per meeting) arrangement?"I stared at my phone screen as the reality of what I just did sunk in.

This is a story that I'd never want my future employers to find out: The story of how I became a sugar baby for a week! It all started when I watched a video called 'my psychotic sugar daddy story' by Tana Mongeau, a YouTuber known for her dramatic storytime videos. Tana spoke about how major influencers on the internet were "popping their pussy for 20 bucks" just for the thrill of it. I looked up sugar daddies on google, the first few pages were about how girls in Universities paid off their tuitions by being with Sugar Daddies, how they lived extravagant lives by having men pay huge numbers for being their sugar daddy. I was concerned, but very, very intrigued. The fact that Tana mentioned the app Seeking Arrangements in her video, made me a little more inquisitive about the same. I wondered whether the same thing would work in a country like ours, where dating is a grey area in itself. Considering I'm someone who cares more about money than sex, I downloaded Seeking Arrangements on my phone to check it out for myself. I put up a few nice photos of me, nothing raunchy or cleavage inclusive… and waited. The moment I put my phone down, I get an alert from the app from a user named inquisitxXx- he sent me a "hey baby". I opened the app and was surprised to find out that I had a string of men, between the ages of 30 to 70, trying to get ME.

Before getting into anything, I dug out as much info as I could to get an idea of how this thing works.

Let me break it down for you. Seeking Arrangements and other sugar dating apps, men usually approach you first. The collection of men is beyond saddening, with their whole bios, net worths and annual incomes included. You can see if they smoke, drink, are married, have children, and what they are looking for. You can swipe left or right on them, just like Tinder, but they can message you even if you don't 'like' them. Yikes. I saw an unhealthy amount of balding, greying uncle ji -types with their photos in front of expensive cars, exotic locations and dimly lit clubs. Sagging skin, tacky sunglasses and creepy half-smiles were littered across the whole app. Some even had photos with really hot women or cheesy edits– and I really needed a break right when I saw a 50-something-year-old man with a BDSM costume, latex chaddi included. These men are looking for one of the two arrangements on the average: one where they pay you per meeting, or another where they pay you per month, like pocket money. Here's a tip: if you ever think of joining one, have a PayPal ready so they can transfer the funds. But for now, let's get back to my story.

I had quite a few potential sugar daddies, I asked them for anywhere between Rs. 45,000 to Rs.75,000 a month. A lot of them said that "my pricing was a little steep" or I added "too many zeroes after 75" but I truly didn't care. The lesser I was willing to tolerate the man, the more I charged. One of them was eloquent and decent enough to get my number, and he video-called me right after. Half-expecting to see a limp penis, I took the call. Turns out, he was just a guy driving to Helsinki in his Audi. He told me he was an investor, looking at Cloud Computing and AI. I pretended to understand what that meant. He asked me, "So you're an ARTIST huh?" In the most derogatory tone possible. I smiled on and told him about my day. I was in awe that he actually listened to me rant about my work and ask me about my career goals. Very daddy-like. This conversation went on till the moment I reached home, he told me to show me some more.

I complied. He stopped the car and stared at me with a strange, satisfied smile. Gross. After the call ended, he asked me for my PayPal account, and I shared the link. That's the tale of how I earned my first hundred euros! In my one week stint on the app, here's what I learnt.

Most sugar daddies want to be extremely discreet, they'll only share the most necessary details about themselves until they actually see you in person or on a video call. One of them, a tech guy in his 30s, took me out to the Lalit. I spend 2 hours with him - not having sex, surprisingly, but out on a date- and that too with great food! He talked about his business venture, and I realised that most of these daddies are hauntingly lonely, have failing marriages and kids that don't really bother. A lot of these men are into very strange and borderline concerning kinks. One of them asked me if I'd stick my finger up my booty-hole and lick it on cam. Obviously, he was blocked. So was a man who told me he screwed a 16-year-old and showed me nudes of the girl- this same dude taught math to Masters students at NYU and wanted to call me "Randi" in bed when he'd come to meet me.

It's obviously not easy to find someone worth it, nor is it easy to manoeuvre around men who are objectifying you.I wondered if I was the only one in my group of friends who was willing to try having a sugar daddy.

Ananya, 22, told me that she'll probably be too scared. "I don't think I'll be able to manage to see these men, I can't have sex with someone when I know they're paying me for it!" Another friend, Janet, told me she'd be down. "I feel it's better than Tinder, where you go expecting good sex and then you find that the guy is 10 years older and doesn't wanna use a condom. Might as well get action and get paid for it you know?"

Whatever the reason might be, getting a sugar daddy is undeniably a discreet and interesting way to get some extra money on the side for folks like me. For some folks it might be weird or cringeworthy, or maybe you just might be into older men or the money. No one’s judging!