The Day of Love

"I don't understand why Cupid was chosen to represent Valentine's Day. When I think about romance, the last thing on my mind is a short, chubby toddler coming at me with a weapon." - Author Unknown.

       It seems to me that this day has been done to death, from Archie's, in the good old days to online shopping sites, in present times, people go looking for a perfect token of love...but the question remains is there really a perfect way of showing someone you love them in one day? When I see social sites flooded with advertisements and personal declarations on this day, I feel a little nauseated...selfies with big fluffy teddies (a gift of course), or some other trite stuff...I don't know, it feels somewhat silly or am I just a tad bit jealous, since we (my partner and I) decided not to exchange gifts this year....well, I have realized its difficult to plan surprises when you live with the person, or maybe we are just too lazy to get into the whole act of planning a surprise! And there's another part of the planning that we didn't do, how should one celebrate this day, go for a quiet dinner at home or some where fancy....so when a friend of mine asked me what are we doing today, I didn't really have an answer, the funny part is that she didn't have any clue as well about her plans with her husband!!! This takes me way back when I was in the eighth grade, and this day was as big as it was years ago in 1998...I didn't have a special someone in my life at that time, and there were some girls who like these girls who strut their gifts in social sites, would parade their cards which they had received from some admirer or the other( a big thing then!) in front of me...instead of feeling sad, I had an idea, I went to the gift shop after school that day (I think it was called “Jingles”) and got me a card...I figured it made sense, since I loved myself the most and I engraved the same emotion in the card as well.....I am not sure whether this act of mine borders on self obsession or pity or maybe something better, like self-sufficiency! But I do feel it is special to get an anonymous card, its like an unexpected phone call or a smile from a crush who otherwise wouldn't give you the time of the day....Its quite like this feeling described in a scene from the movie “Chung-king Express”, a guy when dumped by his girlfriend of five years, jogs to sweat out all the water from his body so that there isn't any left for him to cry...so on his birthday, he decides to leave his pager behind since he expects no phone calls, but he gets a call from a woman who wished him happy birthday, (I won't get into details since that tends to spoils the twists in a movie!)...and he thinks to himself, that if a memory can be canned ( a memory as special as this), it shouldn't come with an expiry date and if it does it should be 10,000 years....I wonder if we get such moments anymore...or maybe I have outgrown such silly romantic stuff....although even when I am writing this post I was wondering if it's too late to get a little something for my husband...

“Anyone who falls in love is searching for the missing pieces of themselves. So anyone who's in love gets sad when they think of their lover. It's like stepping back inside a room you have fond memories of, one you haven't seen in a long time.” 
― Haruki Murakami