We may tightly scrap and pin our romantic yearnings into that super mum bun, we may smile brightly and stuff them firmly into the evening's dum aloo, but deep down inside somewhere, something still thrills at the thought of being tenderly treated like a rare hot house orchid.

Our hearts crave for dollops of moonlight and roses. We aren't ready to hang up our foolishly hopeful, hopelessly fanciful little longings even at the doddering age of 'After 30'. Diehard optimist, Ratna Rajaiah logs onto the Internet and finds that the world is crawling with middle-aged romantics looking for true love

"When I get older, losing my hair,

Many years from now,

Will you still be sending me a Valentine,

Birthday greetings, bottle of wine?

If I'd been out till quarter to three,

Would you lock the door?

Will you still need me, will you still feed me,

When I'm sixty-four?" - The Beatles.

Is there romance after 30? You're thinking - isn't the answer obvious? I mean, there is a time and place for everything, isn't there, and if you haven't found love when both the waist and the age are still under 30, then when? All the same, the question still passes through the mind, like a restless breeze through the trees. And, one that has haunted mankind since the dawn of time. Ever since the Neanderthal man first felt his bald spot and watched his fat, frumpy wife grumpily slap the breakfast - fried brontosaurus eggs - in front of him. Ever since the Hindi phillums' chocolate box heroes of our yesteryears were sucking their middle-aged bellies in, to play college kids long after they had celebrated their 40th birthday for the fifth time. And it's the question that all those who cross over into the twilight zone of 'After-30' - and alas, we all will - ask. They sadly shake their heads, bite into their soggy bread pakora, sip their tepid tea and mutter to themselves, "Is there romance after 30?"

Because the thing is that just because the middle starts spreading, just because the only time love now figures in the conversation is when they're talking about your love handles, doesn't mean that Ye Ole Dil stops yearning for a spot of pyaar-mohabbat. Just because you've seen the wifey in cold wax and colder cream, just because you've watched the patidev pluck his nose hairs just before kissing you, doesn't mean that your heart doesn't crave for a dollop of moonlight and roses.

What I mean to say is that as far as romance goes, the dil never stops saying, 'More!' And, if you don't believe me, ask the Internet. Dunno about all you slaving away at those blogs and dunno about all you hunting the virtual waves for the mating habits of the northern hairy-nosed wombat but if there's a place where you go, if you want to poke and prod at the underbelly of our innermost desires, it's the Internet. So, perhaps you've noticed that no self-respecting dot-com will be seen in public without a dating-mating section. That there are entire websites devoted to promising you that you'll find true love - or at least your dream sado-masochist orgy mate - in just five quick clicks of your mouse. Yeah, yeah but that's for the millions of garma-garam blooded, romance-crazed 'Under 30's'. Maybe, but as we watch all the Hum Tums and Main Hoon Nas and Dhooms and all those music videos stuffed to the gills with disgustingly luscious, sometimes barely clad NYTs (Nubile Young Things) - I mean, even a 39-year-old Shah Rukh Khan is forced to play an army major who can pass off as a college brat - we look a little closer at these websites.

Which is what I did. And found that the world is crawling with grizzled 'After-30's' geezers looking for....er, what are they looking for? Romance? Well, in a manner of speaking, going by some of the email ids. For example, what would you say to a gent, who calls himself 'boobsmaniac' (aged 50 and, in case you didn't get it, his brief but searing biodata is titled 'big boobs lover') is looking for? Then there was 'willmakeu2wet' (aged 30), 'wet69' (aged 35), a 'hotparag' and the gent, to whom my heart went out to, with the wistfully yearning sobriquet of 'whenwilligetmyhoney' (aged 38).

So what, you scoff. One website doesn't make a whole nation of 'Over-the-hill-30's' craving for romance. I mean, let's face facts. The average marriageable age in India for a woman still hovers around 21, over 95 per cent of women are married by the time they're 35 and divorce, though rising steadily like the nation's blood pressure, is still down at single digits. So by 30 - we'll push that to 35 - you're done with romance, found your soulmate, better-or-for-worse half and have now moved on to other things. Bacchey-kacchey, Saturday night housie, agonising about hair tints, your cholesterol and what to do with those Wipro shares.

And romance? Ah, it's there somewhere, fading like the upholstery on the drawing room sofa, often forgotten like that vegetable chopper that promised to mince anything from the onions for your do-pyaaza to your ma-in-law's pinkie, a trifle moth-eaten like your college year book and not even a very good fit like your shaadi-ka-sherwani. But it's there and we aren't looking to redecorate, thank you. I kinda guessed you'd say that. So I went to a few more 'legit' websites, the kind 'boobsmaniac' would shun, where intentions seemed more honourable and the handles a tad more respectable, if a little less honest.

The first indications were encouraging. The search thingie accommodated anyone from ages 18 to 99 to search for anyone (man, or woman or both) from ages 18 to 99. One website generously extended that to age 119 to cover all possibilities. So I searched for a man between 30 and 50. (As you can see, I'm not too picky but that's one of the things that happens to you 'After 30'. Pickiness plummets in direct proportion to the rate at which your craving for romance soars. By 50, you'll settle for a four-legged Martian with green skin and one eye, as long as he's clean and can read the label on your bottle of medication for hot flushes.) I got 80 web pages of possibilities - er I mean men, most of them married and all with pictures. So I narrowed it down to a man between 40 and 55...and still got 37 pages of men. Most of them married, all with pics.

So what, you scoff again. We already knew that the world is full of 'Over-The-Hill-of-30' married men looking to scratch that seven-year itch (thus labelled because it happens after seven years and stays on for seven years) one last time before everything droops and sags. True. But my point is. Are there enough women to match that demand? To find out, I swiftly transformed into a man looking for my 'Over-40' hot leg of baa-lambkin, my warm slice of sweetie-pie. (On the Net you can become anything - Elizabeth Hurley on a bad Arun Nayar day, the cigar on a good Bill Clinton day - anything). Alas, only five measly pages and...I don't want to be rude but let me put it like this. If the 37 pages of men are looking for matching 'Over-40' romance partners, they ain't gonna find it on these five pages. Besides, most of these ladies wanted marriage and love. I know we women always bay for the moon and that's when the garden manure hits the ceiling....

So, are we saying that after 30, women are done with romance? I think maybe not. It's just that we ain't tom-tomming it from the rooftops. We may tightly scrap and pin our romantic yearnings into that super mum bun, we may smile brightly and stuff them firmly into the evening's dum aloo, iron them away with the creases on hubby's shirts but deep down inside somewhere, something still thrills at the thought of being tenderly treated like a rare hothouse orchid. Look at the diamond advertisements, at the libraries still stuffed with Mills and Boons and you'll know. Look at a film like Mr. and Mrs. Iyer and you'll know that for us women, being 'happily' married to a good, decent man isn't inoculation against romance. Look at Leela and Dil Chahta Hai and Freaky Chakra and you'll know that even at the doddering old age of 40, we aren't ready yet to hang up our foolishly hopeful, hopelessly romantic little hearts.

So, is there romance after 30?

Well, I guess all that we can say is that the question is a bit like, "Is there life after death?" And the answer is: who knows, dearies, who knows? But we're hoping like hell there is....

Ratna Rajaiah is a full-time middle-aged person. In whatever spare time is left over from this absorbing and exciting occupation, she spends gainfully as a freelance writer and columnist,convincing herself and others chronologically challenged like her, that there is romance after 30.