Who needs the Valentine’s Day??

I am not averse to romance and love and actually write a lot of mushy stuff (check the ‘Romance’ label in the right panel) but somehow I after all those years of my existence am yet to come to terms with the concept of branding the 14th day of the 2nd month of the year as the day of love.

Ask any level headed practical guy about it and he would agree with me that Valentine’s day, is just another day of the year. In a recent survey carried by a leading dating site, 94% of married men said that any money spent on Valentine's day is a pure waste.

I practically find the concept of Valentine’s day pretty dumb. Demonstrating your love and proclaiming it in the loudest possible manner seems to have become almost obligatory. The dinner reservations, the gifts and flower arrangements and the need to add an element of surprise year after year makes it all the more demanding.

To top that, there is undue pressure on men to meet the globally accepted standards set for the day by the corporate world. You not only spend twice the amount of money on flowers, candies and dinner than what these things would cost on any other day of the year but also may not be appreciated at the end of the day (Simply put, you may not always be successful in your attempt of getting laid).

And even if you are not happy about the whole situation, you can’t move around with that grumpy face. You have to live up to your obligation and be (or portray to be) cheerful, attentive and sincere about it. You might still want to call yourself lucky if you are just able to pull through the day without disappointing your woman (or women, as the case might be) after all your portrayals of an ‘honest’ attempt.

I guess if I wanted to announce my love, I would do that in ways that are more real, subtle and more ‘me’ than being guided by Hallmark or Archie’s cards. If I wanted someone to know that I cared, I would not buy a fabricated greeting card to say so. Pledging an eternal allegiance to someone should be more natural and be done on a regular basis and not because you are expected to do so on a certain day of the year.

Anyway, to each his own.

For guys who share my views on the subject and agree with me on this, I would like to share contents of an interesting ‘Down with Valentine’s Day’ website which hosted a petition that read as under:

To:  The World At Large

We, The Undersigned, believe that Valentines day, in its utmost entirety, should be struck from the yearly calendar due to the profiteering of corporate interests and gratuitous flaunting of affection.

Sincerely,

You could go to this website and mark your signatures on this petition HERE

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------And for the ladies who still are expecting any chocolates or Valentine’s day gifts from me, I would like to share a small joke I picked up from the net this morning:

A young woman was taking an afternoon nap. After she woke up, she told her husband, "I just dreamt that you gave me a diamond necklace for Valentine's day. What do you think it means?"

"You'll know tonight," he said. That evening, the man came home with a small package and gave it to his wife. Hoping that his man had got the hint, the woman was delighted and opened the packed eagerly.

The packet contained a book entitled "The meaning of dreams".

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Well the following few lines sum up all that I need to say on Valentine’s day actually. Thanks and due credit to the person who penned it (Isn’t mine, so I won’t take any credit for this beautiful verse)

Hearts & roses & kisses galore...    
What the hell is all that for?   

People get mushy and start acting queer    
It is one most annoying day of the year

I’ll wear all black for rest of the week   

and get so drunk that I can’t speak 

So that’s the story, what else can I say?     
Shoot the cupid, hell with Valentines Day!