Celebrate Love, Not Valentine's Day!

In my growing up days (don't read it as synonymous with getting old and demented please), Valentine's Day had no importance. My parents didn't celebrate it but they have always been in love. My grandparents probably never heard of it but I believe they loved and respected each other too. And myself? Growing up, I thought it was a day when we got a legitimate excuse to watch adults do a lot of kissing and more on TV, and they called it romantic movies, of course. Now, they've even done away with that cheap thrill...they have it in every song, ad and whatever, you fear what you will see on TV than anythingelse, especially if your kids are around!

Today. it's truly different in India. My friends and I in law college marked our protest for this day by wearing only black, while others wore red. Of course, all three of us had love marriages but my point is - preach against love, you will end up doing the opposite in life:)

But anyway, I always found these celebrations and so called declarations of what each person gets as a Valentines gift very frivolous. You don't need a day or a bunch of cards to celebrate your love for some one special - you've got a lifetime to express it in words, thoughtful gestures and by being there to share the dreams and aspirations that brought you together. 

Today's kids, as young as five, seem completely bought into the Valentine's Day concept (oh no, that's my baby's age!)  and they know about it so early and probably in a couple of years, (god forbid!) my son will be ordering flowers online for gal(s) with a great deal of enthusiasm! 

Ok, lets cut the chase and here's my message for you - If you love some one deeply, be ready for a fun filled roller coaster ride wherein the chances to get deeply hurt are much more probable than anythingelse. If you don't get hurt, then, you need to wonder, "Is this love?" 

Real love hurts a lot because you will always give more than you want to get, you will claim very little in return because you see yourself in the other person more; you learn to live for the other person more than yourself and on the way or in the course of life, you may give up your dreams to have new ones in its place and none of it is truly yours to take coz the moment you lost your heart, you lost yourself to someonelse for a better, happier and wiser YOU.

So, yes, go out there and celebrate love, don't pay a huge price for it. Real love doesn't survive on expensive things, it survives on simplicity and understanding. Little moments of shared joy and pain....those make all the difference to a woman's heart....so, that's the secret to happy love.

Enjoy and let me get back to the romantic flicks on TV - never could resist'em!