Valentine's Day amidst social restrictions in India

Valentine Day is on Thursday, February 14, 2008 this year. The concept of Valentine’s Day is relatively new in urban India. In several tribes, lovers are worshiped In Chhattisgarh, people of Gond tribe worship the love couple " Jhitku-Mitkee" and worship them for fulfilling their wishes. They make their images with sand etc., Story goes like this: agirl Mitkee, sister of seven brothers, was proposed to get married to a tribal youth. Her brothers brought that young boy to their home. Her brothers have a dream and in dream they visualised that deity was asking for a sacrifica and they killed the boy to please the deity. Mitkee killed herself after hearing this news. Nowdays "Mitkee and Jhiktoo are worshiped as Dokra and Dokri by villagers. There are several other such popular stories that reveals that lovers could never get unified in India and they have to sacrifice their lives. In eighties, few people knew about Valentine’s Day. However, celebration of friendship day, parent’s day, mother’s day etc. is now catching upeven in remotest parts of India like fire with the expansion of television network in India and more so with cable TV or DTH networking. Since friendship between opposite sex is not accepted as a common phenomena in India, it is protested with varying intensities. There were widespread protests to it by a section of society but all this is done to drive a political mileage out of the issues like this by the so-called protectors of social values. However, there is not much change in the mental makeup of orthodox people.Infact there are double standards in the society. People who drink costly and expensive foreign wines opposes it if it is used by the masses. Still we are living in eighteenth century as evident by police raids to catch lovers in private places. God knows when this mentality of people will change and young generation will be free to express their feelings. However, technology has, somewhat helped young people to keep in touch otherwise few years back it was difficult task to meet friends of opposite sex

The history of Valentine's Day:

The history of Valentine's Day goes back to 5th Century. Claudius, The then king of Rome, banned marriages in his kingdom. In defiance of his orders, a young man, Valentine fell in love and married a girl and consequent upon it, Valentine was beheaded. Since then the day is celebrated as St. Valentine's Day in the loving memory of Valentine.

The best place to celebrate:

The best place to go for celebration of Valentine’s Day in India is Agra. Visit of Tajmahal gives some special feelings to all lovers as mention of “Tajmahal” itself reminds the love of Emperor Shahjahan to queen Mumtajmahal in whose memory this great monument was constructed. There is no place which has more relevance than it to celebrate Valentine’s Day on earth. However, selection of place depends on one’s choice.

How Indians express love feelings:

English - I love you

Hindi - Mein Tumse Pyar Karta hoon

Bangla - Aamee tuma ke bhalo aashi

Farsi - Doset daram

Gujarati - Hoo thunay prem karoo choo

Kannada - Naanu ninna preetisuttene

Konkani - Tu magel moga cho

Malayalam - Njan Ninne Premikunnu

Marathi - Me tula prem karto

Sindhi - Maa tokhe pyar kendo ahyan

Tamil - Nan unnai kathalikaraen

Telugu - Nenu ninnu premistunnanu

Urdu - hum aap say be-intahaa muhabbat karte hain

How to celebrate: It should be decided by both the partners whether they wish to celebrate it at a private place, in a garden, dine in a hotel, watching movie in a cinema hall, going on a long drive or stay at home. Spending day in each other’s company wherever both choose to stay is a good idea but be careful not to get embarrassed by getting caught by police.

Valentine’s day gift: List is endless. You can give any gift like flowers, jewelry pieces, key chains, photo frames, chocolates, greeting cards, scents, bouquet, music CD, movie CD/DVD, shawls, dresses or any cool gadget depending on your budget and choice of your partner.