Who triggers this? First a notice in the company NB about V-day (surprise ur valentine) by an agency otherwise happy booking tickets for us. 2nd, roaming on MS (roaming is free) I came across this book. 3rd, hardly did I recover from Xmas, new year, sankranti, Republic day offers from the market (looks like they are just waiting for some day or even a weekend to give us ‘offers’) I began to see V-offers everywhere. These thought bombs exploded & below are the sharpnels ;-)
Welcome2V-day: You like it or not, come Feb & its all love in the air. But if you inhale it’s the smoke that gets in! The market simply loves V-day. Everyone is having some V-day offers. There is frenzy, euphoria & what not. You are not kewl if you don’t have any V-day plans. Some shops wont give u a discount if u go without valentine..so ppl are forced to rent-a-valentine, just to get a discount. Wait before you rejoice, for there is another brigade who are also planning to disrupt V-day celebrations. Both sides have their own reasons & justifications & want to change the others, but the truth is where the middle stump is..Yes, in the middle ;-)
Story behind V-day: Ignorance thrives in this age of information too. I recall a survey where a sizable % of respondents thought Christmas was birthday of Santa Claus! If this is the fate of Xmas, V-day origins? Since I like storytelling, here is how it all began.
Meet St. Valentine: The Roman Empire in its days of glory wanted to spread everywhere. This meant they needed large number of soldiers. Now who better than an unmarried man to serve in army? (The married has to serve his wife!). So the emperor ordered that no churches will conduct weddings. For the young men, it was important that to prove they were married; else they were forced into army. One man defied the emperor & got men & women married every time they came before him with intention to get married. He was a priest named Valentine. Soon he is arrested, tried, imprisoned & awarded death.
Now the priest was housed in a separate cell near the jailors quarters. The jailor had a teenaged girl who was blind. Since both couldn’t move around much the girl used to come near his cell & talk to him. They become buddies & behold a miracle. The priest prays ‘god, anyway I am going to die, why don’t u restore my sight to her”. The girl gets the sight & the next day valentine is to be executed. He writes a letter to his family “dear mom, pappa, brother, sister … I don’t know if I get to meet you. If I cant, this is to let you all know that I love you all – yours lovingly valentine”. He handed this to the girl & asked her to give it to her folks, which she did when they came to claim the body. The story about the miracle spread & people started praying to god in his name. Gradually the day of martyrdom of valentine became the day, when everyone in the family, reaffirmed their love for one another. After he was declared a saint, it became St. Valentine’s Day.
For a long time, the day was for expressing, reaffirming love among family members. It was to celebrate family relationships. As the festival got commercialized & became marketed as a day to express boy-girl attraction, so did the ‘saint’ disappear from its name & so did real love! What remain are infatuations and/or lust.
An Indian context: Indian culture is so rich because it thrives on relationships. Just see how we have different words to describe distinct relationships like chachi, chacha, mausi, samdhi etc etc .. in every language. In English except for father, mother, brother, sister, niece, cousin rest all are uncle or aunt or Mr/Mrs! So if there is one place on earth, where St. Valentines day be celebrated in all its fullness, its india. But what do we see around? A soulless version of the day, with only fleshly attractions celebrated. Its all appealing to base instincts/feelings which are fleeting. V-day greeting cards, of which 85% are brought by women, proving that ‘female of the species is a more emotional than the male’! ;-) its all good for the economy? ;-)
Culprit Kaun?: Bad ideas are easy to spread & we Indians are known to pick up the crap of the west than their best ideas. Didn’t Gandhi say “let the breeze of the west flow thru our windows, but let it not be a tempest that uproots our house”! Thru a sustained campaign V-day has been painted an occasion to ‘propose’, ‘pluck roses’ so much so that if I tell, on V-day you can tell you mother, sister etc that you love them, the kewl dudes & dudettes wud find me so uncool!.. oh yeah there are mothers day, fathers day etc for that! Thanks to V-day from the begin of Feb, ppl begin to plan & so many get depressed whether someone will give them a rose or not! So much mass hysteria over it, what with channels asking u to call, dedicate songs, or send sms. What with every phone operator asking you to use ringtones, messages to impress someone, Why send sms to a channel to let them make money? Or why wait for V-day if you think you love someone? It’s interesting to note that exactly 9 months after V-day is Nov 14 - children’s day! ;-)
Meet a protestor: A typical protestor is a jobless youth, loitering around a politician wannabee. He is brainwashed into believing that only he can protect Indian culture. He is told to change others as he himself is perfect. Ask him 4 questions on literature or mythology he doesn’t know, but he still wants to protect Indian culture. Don’t ask him to define Indian culture for he doesn’t know, but doesn’t accept that he doesn’t know. But will thrash u in return for questioning his ‘indianness’. Usually low profile, he emerges on select occasions including a V-day eve. His favorite time pass is attacking archies greeting shops, saying that they were selling cards with ‘erotic massage’ ;-) or attack places where there is special V-day couples entry event. This is one of the paradoxes of India. Everyone has something to say, but doesn’t know how to say it. I have heard some very good arguments for the protestors & not all of them are wrong.
My Opinion: I am someone who holds no stakes in V-day ( or any other so called Days, sponsored by the market). I am all for a true St. Valentine ’s Day where in relationships are celebrated, but then if one truly does that, there is no need for a separate day. When the stress is only on one type of attraction or love between genders, we will have to question the way the festival is projected, celebrated. Any outward expression of love has to be a voluntary act & not seasonally triggered by external market/commercial interests. Which guy upon meeting a girl in November will wait till Feb to propose? Wud he not propose instantly & get married & then give a MS virtual gift on V-day? In other words V-day looks great in committed relationships & family relationships, as it was in its purest form. Otherwise its just a way for girls to accumulate gifts, guys to get rejected & the florist to make money or traders to coin offers etc ;-) & on feb15 when all is said & done, we will be back to square one, after an emotional joyride. Lets make everyday St. Valentine’s day, kya pata kal ho na ho ;-)
Do share your thoughts in comments space.