Is Valentines Day a Farce?

Yup today is our first Valentine’s Day together. Actually both Tina and I never seem to agree with people who like to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Who says that we can express our love or liking for others only on particular day of the year, 14th February?

If we like or love someone, we must take every opportunity, irrespective of the date to express our feelings to them. I don’t know what impression people in other countries have about this day, but here in India, college and school students regard 14th February as the day when they can propose to anyone without getting a slap in return.

Over time, certain areas in cities, colleges, and schools have been designated as hot-spots for Valentine crazy people. Youngsters converge on such places by the dozen to propose or be proposed. But they aren’t the only ones there, bystanders (like me) too gather around to make a spectacle of the whole thing.

Enterprising shopkeepers always on the lookout to make a quick buck, setup flower, card, and gift shops overnight to facilitate the youngsters. For this personalized service, they sell their goods at a price higher than what it would on any other day. of course at a price higher than what it would cost on other days. When I was in college, I knew an guy who had a stationery shop. Every 14th February, this guy would start selling only Valentine goodies. I don’t blame him, if there are fools willing to pay Rs.20-30 for a single rose bud, who wouldn’t want to cash in!

In this flock of “love birds” only 10-20% people are there to meet their boyfriend or girl-friend, the rest are people who would piss their pants before talking to a member of the opposite sex.

The day starts in great earnest for these pant-pissers. Guys dress in their best of clothes, buy all the flowers, cards, and gifts they can afford and head straight to the places where the largest number o0f girls gather. Places like the college cafeteria, posh markets or student centers are painted red (you know why). To further cloud rational thinking, love songs are played over and over.

As the clock hits 11 Am, girls start pouring in dressed in the skimpiest of clothes. Once there, they mingle around and wait for the boys to approach them; flowers, gifts and cards in tow. Most of the flowers and cards a girl receives end up in dustbins scattered all around. And if the gift isn’t good enough, it too meets the same fate, right in front of the guy who most probably fought with his parents to buy it.

Undeterred, the guys move on to the next girl, and so on. This goes on till about 2-3 PM in the afternoon, till it is time for the girls to head home, or the guys run out of money and presents. Guys often stay back to exchange stories about how pretty a girl looked, and what they said to her. Of course these stories are made up, else we wouldn’t have dustbins full of roses would we!

God gave us feelings and speech to express our feelings to loved ones, be it Valentine’s day or any other day of the calendar. So why must we engage in such frivolous acts?

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