New Delhi, Feb 14 (IANS) Millions of youngsters across India celebrated Valentine’s Day Thursday, even sending floating message of love for the people of Pakistan. The celebrations were by and large peaceful, in sharp contrast to previous years when radical groups disrupted the celebration.
In a rare gesture of goodwill, a rubber tube decorated with flowers and messages of love was set afloat on river Chenab in Jammu and Kashmir for people in Pakistan to receive it on Valentine’s Day. The gesture came from members of a political party in Jammu.
As the tubes with sweets, flowers and cards reached the midstream, volunteers of the Democratic Socialist Party, a Kashmir-based party led by a Kashmiri Muslim girl, Darkshana Andrabi, cheered.
The capital said it with roses, prices of which shot up at least ten-fold in areas round Delhi University, which buzzed with life since morning. Couples, mostly young students and groups of friends, gifted long-stemmed roses and even bouquets to one another.
A price of a stem of rose that would otherwise cost Rs.5, shot up to Rs.25-30, even Rs.50, Thursday, but there were no dearth of takers. Askok Tiwari, a flower vendor in Roopnagar, close to Delhi University, said Valentine’s Day meant “great business”.
The tinsel town of Mumbai lived up to the Valentine spirit with special screenings of popular films, wine parties and hospital visits by stars as a gesture of goodwill.
Actress Aishwarya Rai attended the premiere of ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ in Delhi on Valentine’s Day with leading man Hrithik Roshan. Model-turned-actress Bipasha Basu is preparing for a short holiday to Cape Town with beau John Abraham as a V-Day treat, reports said.
For actor Zayed Khan, the day was special because he had proposed to wife actress Malaika Arora five years ago in this day. “It’s doubly special for me. I tried my hand at being a chef,” he said.
The celebrations, however, hit a roadblock in the southern city of Hyderabad where the students’ wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party went on a rampage, burnt a shop selling cards and Valentine’s Day gifts, saying that the practice was against Indian culture. It also threatened to marry off lovers who “misbehaved” in public places.
Elsewhere, in Kolkata, the day saw crowds of youngsters and students on the streets since Thursday morning thronging card and gift shops and chatting over intimate meals at restaurants. The theatres and the multiplexes in the metropolis were packed.
The Valentine’s Day ritual dates back to ancient Rome, where Feb 14 was seen as a holiday to honour Juno, the queen of the Roman gods and the goddesses. The following day was marked by what the Romans called as the Ides of February, a feast dedicated to the heathen god called, Lupercalia.
In the last few years commercial interests of the greeting cards and gift industry have been the driving force behind the hype and hoopla accompanying the celebration.