V-Day

There are a few calendar dates when I want to be underground or hibernate or just vanish without a forwarding address. 14th February happens to be one of those.

I cannot stand how the world goes on a pink and red overdrive! I am amazed at how easily we rely on borrowed words to profess our love!

I feel sugary beyond expression when I see the entire world turn everything in heart-shapes; from cakes to cards. In fact I feel sorry for the heart shape. Much like love being an over-rated feeling, I feel the heart shape is the most abused of the lot.

All gift shops get filled with teddy bears holding onto hearts with lovey-dovey messages or woeful looking puppies. Why doesn’t anybody gift a ferocious looking tiger or a dinosaur instead of teddy bears? Those bears, I tell you, are far from extinction! 

I hate the fact that flowers are more expensive. Why would I pay 10 times the normal price for a frail looking rose bud that the florist pushes saying that it will bloom into a big rose and in reality, it dies a bud?

I do not like the fact that restaurants are either (over) booked or will not be able to do delivery as all their delivery boys are busy. And a special Valentine menu, my foot! Draw a pink strawberry gelly heart over anything and there you go! Viola, your Valentine menu is ready!

And I do not comprehend why we obsess over a toddler with a weapon in his hand! Usually we would run for life, or call the child’s parents and give an earful or maybe call a doctor and discuss this on Oprah. But when Cupid brandishes his bow and arrows, we all gush in mush.

Having said all this, I do admit that I am a very romantic sort of person. I have, in insane moments, bought chocolates and heart-shaped useless things. I also succumbed to the pressures of having a Valentine and celebrating it for a couple of years. Recently I came across an interview I gave to a local publication on what I would ‘love’ to do on V-Day and I almost threw up reading what I had said. Thankfully I am out of it and see the sheer wastefulness of a day ‘committed to love’.

Watching TV together, with a limb on either partner or ordering food at home and eating while watching a film is a better day as compared to the commercial V-Day!