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Does Valentine's Day Subvert Indian Culture?

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So does Val's day subvert our bhartiya sabhyata? I say it does. Well, when religious-political parties pigeonhole important stuff like banning birthdays and honeymoons and start slamming Val's you've simply gotta sit up and notice.
Here's why I think it is a danger which will explode one day like the earthquake:
First of all Valentine's Day stands for 'love'. Now love and all that obscene stuff is simply not part of bhartiya sanskriti. We all know what 'love' means when applied to teenagers and young adults - the 's' word and we won't even go there. Then, to be totally honest five years ago no one really seriously expected or got dissed if these 'loves' (tsk, tsk why can't they wait like good bhartiya children to fall in love after marriage?) of their lives did not wish them on Val's. But now it's reached alarming proportions - everyone expects a Valentine. My mum yesterday, fixing me with a baleful look, was wondering if any of her children (since she has only one, viz. moi, that pretty much narrows down the list) would remember to wish her. And then sighed in a very meaningful (read menacing) way that she had been meaning to clean my room again. When I thought of the last time she did that, I went and bought that Valentine's card. See that? I mean where's the good old bhartiya sabhyata? - if you can't expect unconditional love from your own Ma, civilization has pretty much hit rock bottom. Did Nirupama Roy stop Shashi Kapoor when he proudly (and, if the truth be told, a shade too loudly) declared, 'Mere paas Ma hai,' with a 'Not so fast sonny, what about that Valentine?'

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Of course the cards-and-presents-and-those-silly-stuffed-toy-makers simply love this. What to me is only a bearly-eyed teddy bear with a sickening sweet cho-shweet grin is to them good crisp five hundred rupees. 'Commercial' is the word that springs to the lips. Which translates to moneymaking greed and that was never part of bhartiya sabhyata, was it? I mean where is all this go-getter spirit coming from anyway? We Indians are known for our spiritual-religious souls. We were the feel-good-instant-nirvana factors for those soulless westerners; as in they see us living in our abject poverty and instantly feel better about their lives. Now suddenly there is this commerce happening and everyone wants to make money and Valentine's Day is simply another one of those 'commercial' creations. Chi-chi. Are these the great traditions we have lived with all these centuries. Are these the values our shastras teach us? Is this what the VHP tells us? No! And we know the VHP is always right. So out with Val's is what I say.

29. Leo. Writer. That's Gargi Prasher in a nutshell. She's been a copywriter, journalist and web writer -frequently all of them at the same time. Now she's a consultant to various websites and is next on line is moving to England.

Welcome to the New India, where we believe in mushroom clouds but leave no room for mush. This is the New India where everything begins and ends with the Big Ban.
The latest target of the morality brigade is St Valentine's Day. Accepted that it's a pretty ridiculous import from the West but then aren't Coke, Pepsi or the new WTO tariff regime that will drive our farmers to penury? Is it such a major problem if a couple of consenting adolescents spend a single day in the year expressing their love (or whatever passes for it)?
No, nyet, nein and before this line is banned, I must add the all-important nahin! Because the self-appointed keepers of the nations conscience have so decreed. Curbing the assault upon Indian culture that is Valentine's Day is a significant part of the political agenda of the kicker brigade, coming close enough to banning other emblems of the decadent Occident like birthday cakes, beauty pageants and, of course, also indulging in the highly constructive pastime of digging up cricket pitches.
This is important, earthshakingly so. After all, who cares a hoot for the minor issues that ought to keep the thought police occupied. Like tackling corruption, giving us some semblance of governance, saving lives, providing education, and all those other really frivolous matters that do not matter.

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These people are absolutely right. The card manufacturers have launched an attack on bharatiya sabhyata. That's an attack as dangerous as that undertaken by the jehadis. Of course, since our brave morality policemen would rather be flinging sticks and stones and breaking the bones of a couple of teenagers than facing up to the gun-totting militants, you know where the priority lies.
And that is never enough. Not only should all the shops run by these purveyors of prurience be destroyed, so must the discs and pubs and other artifacts of the culture that demeans ours. The next step should be to ban all co-educational institutions, after all men and women should never look at one another in public. In fact, that's probably the problems the poor boys who've undertaken this grave duty to restore the nation's honour, face. No girl actually looks at them. So, there has to be an escape valve for their frustration.
I don't mean to sound petulant but all this close proximity of the opposite sexes will, horror of horrors, lead to extra- and pre-marital sex. That will never do. After all, since we have inherited a Victorian system of Government so should we abide by a Victorian morality. Forget the fact of the copious copulation that has propelled our nation's population past the billion mark. We still should not have any sex or at least publicly acknowledge that any such thing exists.
I hope all this is making sense because the next time you get that dirty thought into your mind, that of sending someone special a Valentine's card, remember that you are single-handedly subverting Indian culture. Remember that our culture is still young, just a couple of millennia old, and therefore, that it is fragile and can be irrevocably damaged.

Sanjay Shukla, a telecom professional, has never received nor sent a Valentine's card thereby becoming a likely candidate to join the Sangh

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