How do you define the word pretentious? I think Valentine’s Day exemplifies this word in the most perfect manner. I don’t know about other countries but in India it does.
14th of February is a day we remember Saint Valentine for the love he tried to spread during his era. Even he wouldn’t have imagined that even after 1000s of years, he would be remembered in such a grand fashion. But the ironical part is, it is this love only which has gone missing these days.
I am not talking about mishaps like murder, rape, bomb blasts or any other major issues of the world, I just feel that there is an absence of joy on the basic level itself. Love has taken the form of protest. Instead of enjoying this beautiful day with our loved ones, we are busy creating agendas out of it. Social networking websites are full of articles like, “10 reasons why your boy friend hates you.”, “Raise your voice against RSS by participating in ‘Kiss of Love’ campaign.”, and “Feminism is the need of the hour this Valentine’s Day.”
On one hand we are trying to use Valentine’s Day as a tool to fight and on the other we are trying to look at it as a day of spreading happiness and love. Isn’t it self contradicting? The meaning of love in itself has changed so much that people are now easily confusing it with hatred. Why is it so difficult to understand that though you are trying to raise your voice to propagate love, it still means that you are killing the essence of love in some way or the other?
We are so much busy trying to prove a point that we have completely forgotten the original meaning of love. It was never meant to prove a point and that is what you should NOT be doing.
Why are we so adamant on standing out of the crowd and show the world that I have a different take on Valentine’s Day and I want to celebrate it differently? Is it that hard to follow the convention for a change, just buy a normal card, normal chocolates, a normal gift, and present it to your loved ones, simple. Instead of fighting with each other in the race to become pretentious and cool, let’s slow down a little and enjoy the world charm just for a change.
And now look what I did. I did the same thing which I was trying to tell others not to do. I guess hatred has trickled down too deep inside our system to come out now. Love is a long gone thing, all what you and I are left with is an urge to find love, but definitely not love.
