Dreaded Feb

It started off with a small spark somewhere. They must've just thought of it as a brand new line extension. It worked for them. But it also led to increased suicide rates at this time of the year. A decade ago, no one knew about the dire necessity to go to a shop flooding with trinkets, teddy bears, giant tigers, cute pandas stuffed scarily, cards for every occasion from constipation to diarrhea, and buying some useless 'item' worth 10 bucks for 80 and doling it out for someone special as they call it, with more sap drooling from the corners of their mouths. But now it's quite ubiquitous. Rather, it's more like a ritual. Now it's tradition. It's as historical as Christmas.

Well, historical it certainly is. When I was a teenager and this fad was just kicking in, an elite group of the erudite were bestowing us with their presence at home for dinner. They laughed about it and told us the real story of St. Valentine. (I'm not gonna tell you, research on your own - Wiki/Google). It had nothing to do with what it has been made to mean today by the gift shops and the greeting card companies. But little did they know, that the bug was for the masses. The bug to feel wanted, to feel special, to feel worth spending money for.

So now that almost everyone except the fanatics and the extremists have warmed up to the idea, it is high time we acknowledge it whether we like it or not. It's not just cynics who happen to be single at this fateful time of the year criticize the concept. Even when one is in a relationship, it's more of an obligation to 'show' your LOWE. Some times, you may even think that it's just another day and not do anything at all just so you are the cooler lot and above the 'lame' crowd. Face it, you just wanna save money :).

The tumour's getting bigger though and pressing on the optic nerve. It has stretched to a week now, with Rose Day and Propose Day and Sneeze Day and what not. I mean, get a life people. Only because you get spam from a multi-million dollar greeting/gift churning company compelling you to do something on that 'day' else all hell breaks loose on you, you don't have to comply.

It's a good industry though. Flowers, roses to be precise, sold at double the usual price, cards, teddy bears, goldfish, pets, diamond jewellry, watches, movie tickets, dinners at restaurants, parties and bashes, hotels and B&Bs, resorts, spas.. are all milking out of this one notion. The notion of being with someone.