By Akhil Tripathi
This year’s Valentine’s Day is over. Red roses, chocolates, greeting cards etc were exchanged between lovers to bring in the romantic mood. Stylish cards and trendy presents flooded the market – all designed to fuel passions and make the couples more romantic.
The gift and flower shops waiting for this one off day engaged in hefty preparations lining their shelves with gifts, flowers, bouquets and heart-shaped chocolate presents- to reap the benefits from what the passionate Nepali Romeos could do for their Juliets and vice versa.
The unsuspecting lovers, on their part, eventually did what the flower, card or chocolate sellers wanted them to do- buy their goods, so what if this takes the name of St Valentine!
“Our sales broke all previous records today. We knew from the experiences of the past few years that nothing sells like flowers, bouquets, chocolates and greeting cards on this day,” a gift shop owner at Durbar Marg said happily and added, “As soon as I opened my shop, I knew that we would have to deal with much more customers than usual.”
It is perhaps somewhat ironic to note that today a trendy teenager doesn’t know what a Thulo Ekadasi is but they know for sure what the 14th Day of every February is all about. “Valentine’s Day is a day to express your love, emotions and feelings towards those who you care about,’ says Nischal, 17, a plus two student in Kathmandu, adding, “There is nothing bad about expressing love because it’’s love that binds the world together.” Asked about the Thulo Ekadasi, he says, “What’s that again?”
But it’s not only for love in its purest meaning that now a growing breed in Nepal finds a reason to celebrate the V-Day. A BA student at the Tri-Chandra College in the capital remarked, “I realized last year that my girlfriend is more generous with her kisses on this day! And it’s not a bad deal if I have to be generous with red roses, chocolates and greeting cards.”
The Student Union of Tri-Chandra College organised a unique ‘love letter writing competition’ to mark the day. Trying to explain the rationale behind the organising of this event, a union member said, “Valentine’s Day has become something which a large chunk of people, married as well as unmarried, find fun in celebrating. This letter writing competition, in which the participants will creatively express their feelings towards the ones they love, is an effort to respect their feelings.”
If the unmarried lovebirds are doing all they can to celebrate Valentine’s Day, married couples are not far behind, either. “While Valentine’s Day isn’t just about giving and receiving gifts, it’s also not only for the teenagers. It heralds the onset of a season of love, compassion and care which even the married ones can express towards their life-partners,” said Rajan Shrestha, 32, a father of two.
“It doesn’t matter that we are not teenagers. We still have enough love left in us to exchange and show it to the world on this special day. My valentine is my wife,” he added.
While there are those who think that the 14th of February is the most happening day for those in love, there are also those who think it was just another day. Mahesh Tripathi, a student, says, “It just doesn’t make sense to me when I see people spending hours in shops finding a card or a gift for their partners. While the V-Day makes the single ones feel lonely and left out, those who have their partners feel pressurised to take their partners out to restaurants or buy something for them. What I mean to say is love has many forms and there are as many ways to express it. You don’t need to wait for this day to come to express love.”
There are even those who hold more reserved opinions on V-Day. “In our society where love between two souls, who are not married to each other, remains unrecognised and is rather considered taboo, and which believes that virtues should be promoted and vices should be prevented, I don’t think celebrations like Valentine Day hold any meaning,” says Ramakant Sharma, a Hindu priest.
These rather reserved opinions not withstanding, any idea the time of which has come is unstoppable. There seems no sane or logical way to stop people from celebrating this “lovers’ day” if they want to celebrate it and find their own valid reasons to do so. nepalnews.com Feb 14 05