Today is Valentine’s Day. It is something that I have never celebrated before and the chance of celebrating it ever in my life is very distant. Now, I might sound like someone who has never fallen in love… that is wrong. For me, celebrating Valentine’s Day to celebrate the idea of love seems like a very foolish thing. Love is something universal… it permeates every living being in this world and the idea of celebrating it on a day, which has a sad story as its history, does not appeal to me. What put me off this celebrating thing is that the way people celebrate it… you can’t go to a mall because you’ll be bombarded with pink furry teddy bears or girls wearing pink trying to sell of ugly pink products. 
What’s with pink and St. Valentine? From the stories I know, he hasn’t given anyone any pink gifts! The moment I come into contact with these furry things, that they push on to your face, at the entrance to a mall or a gift store, I start sneezing… I’m allergic to it. If those meaningless things represent love, I’m allergic to love!
St. Valentine is said to have performed weddings to soldiers for whom it was prohibited. For this reason he was imprisoned and sentenced to death. But, during his prison term, he is believed to have healed the daughter of the jailer. However, there is no reason to believe that they fell in love with each other. The legend which says that he wrote a letter to her before his execution could have been a fictitious manipulation, purely for the purpose of entertainment. Torturing a poor soul by celebrating it every year by spending money of pink furry balls and hearts is unacceptable to me.
Also, this year lacks the public entertainment of chasing lovers by the Hindutva dogs in India. The untimely death of Bal Thackeray is to be blamed for that. He could have lived for a few more months to go with a bang! What’s more fun than chasing brainless teenagers away from the bushes of Bombay… eh? 
The VHP idiots also will be putting chains on their minions as they are facing elections next year! I guess they don’t want to get on the bad books of the youngsters, right? I also heard stories that one of these monkey-groups had issued a statement saying that teenagers found copulating on this day will be forcibly married off. Nice, I thought. What more should one hope for if there is an easy way of getting married? Head for the nearest park and engage your loved one romantically and wait for one of these groups to show up… Bang! You’re married the next minute. Without even spending a single penny! Shouldn’t we thank the dead tyrant for this idea? Anyway, I’m a bad boy and let’s not bad mouth the dead any more than needed. I’m just depressed that the king of fun is no more and I know y’all understand that! But, Let’s not forget the tokens of love that he received from the millions of agitated youngsters from all over the sub-continent; Pink Underwears. Pink! There again… Pink!
Yesterday, I was out shopping (not for Valentine’s Day!) for provisions and I couldn’t walk around freely inside the HyperCity Market because everywhere it was blocked with stuffed bunnies and angrybirds toys… all pink and heart shaped and things like ‘I Love You’ and ‘You’re My Heart’ written all over. Do people actually buy these? After a while I was one the verge of puking because I couldn’t take it anymore. What convoluted idea of love and gifting has been pushed on to the customers by these markets? What a degenerated way of expressing one’s love? Cards? Seriously? Crosswords has an up to 70% sale on Mills & Boons! Also, Planet M has a sale on Bollywood RomComs. Ugliest thing ever heard of!
These things have successfully put me off Valentine’s Day for at least 50 years.
- Manu
Related articles
- Without valentine in valentines day (mynightdream.wordpress.com)
- The essence of Valetines day. (benueadvertmagazine.wordpress.com)
- Global Limos Shares Ideas for Valentines Day (prweb.com)
- Love in valentines day (mynightdream.wordpress.com)
- St. Valentine’s Day (sunvalleymiddleschool.wordpress.com)
- Tough Love (toughchik.wordpress.com)
- A Friend’s Writing as a Proxy for My Valentine’s Day Wishes (themoderatevoice.com)
- This Valentine, VHP offers olive branch… and a helpline (thehindu.com)
The endless hype and hyperbole is off-putting as is the way marketing twists myths and legends (not just this one) for its own sake and takes away whatever promise of the sacred might be hidden in them. It’s all just too crass and tasteless. Having said that, it was Chaucer who first gave us a St. Valentine’s Day associated with romance: “For this was on Saint Valentine’s Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.”
May every day be a day filled with love for you, Manu.
Many blessings,
Jamie
You think you have V-day worries? Think about all the poor souls who have to actually buy one of those pink furry things for their girlfriends, all the while enduring the looks from everyone in the store pitying the henpecked boyfriend! And then plan a suitably special/ romantic/ fancy V-day, knowing that in doing so he is in competition with every boyfriend the girl has previously had. And then, of course, since the girlfriend is going to discuss all the details with HER girlfriends, you are also in competition with all of their past and present boyfriends! And there is the matter of being able to afford the gift and other stuff…
I don’t know why couples live in dread of being forcibly married… They should use this as a brilliant opportunity. Parents don’t agree to your marriage? Just arrange to be spotted indulging in PDA on V-day, and your parents won’t have much of a say anymore!
Btw, soumyav, I’m the GF…
And I don’t mind at all!
I really did not know all this was going behind the curtain.
This makes the Lincoln Conspiracy looks like a tea party. Anyway, Good to know about it all. I think those type of boyfriends are stupid anyway and deserve to be dumped immediately.
Ha ha!:-) thts was a goodread! hope ur GF doesn’t mind you being so normal…
Thanks Soumya
She has seen all my antics and has approved it so far