Clearly not everyone has taken to Valentine’s Day in India and definitely, the Hindu Mahasabha (a right wing conservative group) has declared war on the Day of Love. Interesting that the very country that ‘invented’ love and purported great openness about the subject in the past should have such a problem with it now… Or is it because the Western wind has blown V-Day, as it is called in the Washington Post online, into India’s direction…? The group has vowed to make short shrift with any lovebirds who on this day feel the desire to declare their undying love, either in person or online, by swiftly forcing them to agree to marriage. Social media will be scrutinized for any miscreants who will have no option but to accept nuptials as the inevitable consequence of their bold deed. On the upside, wedding sari shops will experience a boom and their profits will rocket; wedding venues will rake in the rupees… Could it be that the leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha have a stake in this industry??? In the meantime, the shops in Trivandrum this morning were still selling Valentine’s Day gifts and the film channels on TV have not exactly given up on showing every soppy romantic film made in the last 20 years…
It has not escaped my notice that I may be missing out on an opportunity here: all I need to save myself from a future bursting with loneliness is someone posting me a ‘love’ message on Facebook in the vicinity of the Hindu faithful of the very conservative kind… Does What’sApp count as well??? Maybe I should quickly join Twitter. But then again, I now know there is no such thing as undying love and fairytale weddings… And Indian men, well, I could write pages on the subject, but not much of it would be flattering… Best leave it at that… So, if anyone was to send me a message today, I am unlikely to reply; just to be on the safe side… But any other day of the year…
Lieve Round The World 
Hi, I’ll dare to send you a message, sorry, can’t say it with flowers they would die before they arrived! It’s very interesting hearing how others ‘celebrate’ Valentine’s Day. Personally I’ve never been involved in it! Careful what you do and say!!!
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Although marrying people off just because they profess their love on Valentine’s Day is funny, the sad thing is that this is just a manifestation of the growing religious intolerance within India and Hindus are trying to preserve their religion and culture in the wake of what they see as Muslims trying to become more dominant. In some states there have been calls for Hindu women to have more children in a bid to increase the Hindu population… As for Valentine’s Day, the day has taken on a very different meaning since last year and is now a very poignant anniversary, but I felt it was better not to write about that… some things are best kept private.
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