It’s Valentine’s Day today. I happen to have spent two years studying at the most prestigious Fashion School of India (don’t ask me the why and the how of my being there – artists are crazy – and they do stuff that won’t make sense to any left-brained individual,) and it was there that I first realized that there was indeed a festival that celebrated love – an emotion that should be experienced to be understood. Unlike anger, sorrow, happiness, and many other emotions, love can exist without expression, but when expressed, it flourishes. This day is about expressing your love for another being…doesn’t matter how.
So that brings us to the Valentine’s Day Google Doodle, which plays a sweet animation, in which a boy tries to win a girl’s heart by giving her a rose followed by an array of gifts, but he fails – and then he realizes that it was really a lot simpler. All he had to do was skip a rope with her. He realizes that…
- He didn’t have to order a glass of wine worth $6000 (of course, there’s a diamond at the bottom of the glass),
- He didn’t have to gift her a car,
- he didn’t have to buy her an iPad or an iPhone,
- He didn’t have to buy her an apartment,
- He didn’t even have to buy her a teddy,
- or even a rose…
all he had to do was find out what she liked doing and tell her that he cared for her enough to understand her.
Yet it was all the way backwards for me today. Today, I celebrated my first Valentine’s Day.
We had gone to the market to buy regular stuff – a diary, a few folders, a couple of books, and grocery – but I, who wore a steel-plant helmet and would receive hand-crafted ceramic earrings made of refractory bricks from him when we had first met…today after spending two decades of his life with this cartoon girl and caring for her every day of their lives together, he gave her roses! We never celebrated this day, because we thought that being in love was celebration enough – but this Valentine’s Day shall remain etched in my mind forever, because when he gave me those roses, I realized that traditions become stronger when celebrated with symbols.
I wish all my visitors and readers a Very Happy Valentine’s Day 🙂
And yes, for the Love-Cynics…
Here are Romeo, Juliet, and the… … the extra!
Shafali's Caricatures, Portraits, and Cartoons 
Finally after using my laptop instead of the iPad, I am actually able to leave a comment. How strange that I can’t even see comments with the iPad. Apple get with the program….will ya?
Congrats on becoming a special valentine this year. Maybe it takes 20 years for some people to warm up to the fact that giving beautiful flowers to a special person can make them feel even more special. And roses…..I love those flowers although I truly love the yellow ones much more than the red ones. Their fragrance can be absolutely intoxicating. Here’s to many more years of happily being in love! Oh Romeo……..ya got it right this year !!!!!
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Thanks Nancy:) It hadn’t been roses but it has been a lot of different things through all these years…and I didn’t miss the roses at all. Now after 10 days, one still remains – a red rose:)
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