So does Val's day subvert our bhartiya sabhyata? I say it does. Well, when religious-political parties pigeonhole important stuff like banning birthdays and honeymoons and start slamming Val's you've simply gotta sit up and notice.

Here's why I think it is a danger which will explode one day like the earthquake:

First of all Valentine's Day stands for 'love'. Now love and all that obscene stuff is simply not part of bhartiya sanskriti. We all know what 'love' means when applied to teenagers and young adults - the 's' word and we won't even go there. Then, to be totally honest five years ago no one really seriously expected or got dissed if these 'loves' (tsk, tsk why can't they wait like good bhartiya children to fall in love after marriage?) of their lives did not wish them on Val's. But now it's reached alarming proportions - everyone expects a Valentine. My mum yesterday, fixing me with a baleful look, was wondering if any of her children (since she has only one, viz. moi, that pretty much narrows down the list) would remember to wish her. And then sighed in a very meaningful (read menacing) way that she had been meaning to clean my room again. When I thought of the last time she did that, I went and bought that Valentine's card. See that? I mean where's the good old bhartiya sabhyata? - if you can't expect unconditional love from your own Ma, civilization has pretty much hit rock bottom. Did Nirupama Roy stop Shashi Kapoor when he proudly (and, if the truth be told, a shade too loudly) declared, 'Mere paas Ma hai,' with a 'Not so fast sonny, what about that Valentine?'

Of course the cards-and-presents-and-those-silly-stuffed-toy-makers simply love this. What to me is only a bearly-eyed teddy bear with a sickening sweet cho-shweet grin is to them good crisp five hundred rupees. 'Commercial' is the word that springs to the lips. Which translates to moneymaking greed and that was never part of bhartiya sabhyata, was it? I mean where is all this go-getter spirit coming from anyway? We Indians are known for our spiritual-religious souls. We were the feel-good-instant-nirvana factors for those soulless westerners; as in they see us living in our abject poverty and instantly feel better about their lives. Now suddenly there is this commerce happening and everyone wants to make money and Valentine's Day is simply another one of those 'commercial' creations. Chi-chi. Are these the great traditions we have lived with all these centuries. Are these the values our shastras teach us? Is this what the VHP tells us? No! And we know the VHP is always right. So out with Val's is what I say.