Valentine’s Day, Google Doodle, and a bunch of roses :)

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!

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Cartoon-Caricature of the Modern Romeo and Juliet – and my Meeting with Juliet!

Romeo & Juliet, one of the most famous plays that William Shakespeare, the great English Playwright wrote without using a computer, still continues to make us laugh, cry, post, comment, and… now even TWEET (Such Tweet Sorrow)! Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare is a timeless play, where the characters and the situations continue to change, but the story remains the same. What if, the characters tweaked the story a little?

The Caricature – Romeo & Juliet:

Here are our Romeo and Juliet, but unknown to Romeo, there’s mush flying out of the balcony as our modern tattooed and pierced Juliet tries to utilize her time more productively than her Shakespearean counterpart.

O Romeo, Romeo, Wherefore art thou Romeo?

And now…

A Verbal Caricature:

Our Modern Juliet looking resplendent in her tattoos, piercings, and purple hair visits the Caricaturist in her Dreams!

Now, my dear visitors, I shall make you privy to a secret. The Juliet that you see in this caricature – yes, the purple-haired tattooed beauty – well, she visited me in my dreams. I repeat our conversation here – verbatim.

Juliet (sizing me up): So you are the caricaturist who made this caricature?
I (displaying the artist’s pride in her work): Yes:)

Juliet: You don’t look like much – but artists never do. So, tell me – You really think I’d do that – kiss an idiot while I wait for my Romeo?
I (With my artistic features ruffled by her offhand judgment): Yes, Juliet. I think you would.

Juliet: That just tells me how naive you are!
I: Will you care to explain that insult, my dear!

Juliet: Do you think I am ugly?
I: Of course not – you look like a colorful box of candies…gift-wrapped in purple!

Juliet (confused – wondering whether it was a compliment or not): Hmmm. Okay, so you agree that I am beautiful and sexy?
I (not wanting to give in): What did I say just now?

Juliet (not willing to reason it out any further): So what makes you think that there’d be just one joker that I’d be smooching in the balcony?
I (with my eyes popping out of my head): You’d be smooching more?

Juliet: Smooching? What are you? Ancient or something?! You’ve got to be joking. I know the Romeos of my day – there’s no way they could ever climb a rope to reach the balcony, and even if they could, It’ll take them at least a day – So I’d have the whole day, and also the night! I don’t know about Shakespeare’s Juliet, but I’d be bored to death if all I did was kiss them!
I: Oh! I didn’t see it your way – so while poor Romeo struggles to reach you…

Juliet: Struggle? What struggle? It isn’t like I’ve switched my mobile off or something.
I: What’s with the mobile?

Juliet (trying to see if my hair were gray): There’s an obvious generation gap here. Don’t you understand, I’ll have to SMS the poor guy continuously – it’ll keep his morale up!
I: Oh, I though you weren’t interested in Romeo.

Juliet (assessing me): What are you, seriously. A moron? Of course I’d be interested in a Romeo. At the end of the day, I’d need someone I could trust to get me my cough drops and take me to the hospital when I am seventy! In the long run, every girl needs a Romeo!

And so, dear visitors, I realized how naive I had been when I drew this caricature. Nevertheless, what’s done is done. I’ve promised Juliet that someday I’ll make another caricature, which will be closer to reality.

Until then – you be the judge!