Happy Valentine's Day

My hand feels much better today. It looks kind of gross but I think because it is healing. I had to change the bandage this morning and tried to re-wrap it like the woman did yesterday but didn't do nearly as good a job. But lacking real band aids, I did the best I could. I couldn't have the ladies at the Leela looking at my open wound though I did get lots of concerned looks. On the way over, I thought about coming up with a better story...I got in a fight with a rickshaw driver. I saved a child from being hit by a car. I was riding a camel and fell off...In the end I just told the truth. The most common response, "you get up at what time to go run?" My retelling of the story today was not nearly as dramatic as yesterday.

So Bangalore, as you should know by now, has many names: India's Silicon Valley, the Garden City, Bengaluru...I'd also like to add on this St. Valentine's Day, the City of Romance, the Paris of India...

The mall has been decked out for weeks now with hanging hearts, fake roses and cuddly little teddy bears. The Hallmark holiday has hit Bangalore with a...bang. Apparently it's only really taken off here in the past couple of years with the IT boom, new malls that have popped up and the growth of the Young Hipster class. But they've not only recognized the holiday, they have embraced it with wide open arms. One of the grocery stores I go to has a section on the first floor where they sometimes put special displays or advertise specials. Two weeks ago they started setting up for Valentines, dousing the entire first floor in pinks and reds, reminding you that if you really LOVE your sweetie, you'll buy, buy, buy. But what is most amusing to me are their cards. The majority of them are probably 12x15 inches in size and they are filling with the most decorative of all the cursive fonts. Big, swirly, slanted letters that say things like, "For my love, my darling, the most precious thing in my life. For you, the love of my life, I'd like to wish you the most special Valentine's Day. In all my life, I've never known a love as true as yours..." And on and on and on and on they go. The entire 12x15 card filled with cliches and hearts and roses. But not just the outside, you open the inside and both sides are filled with more long and embarrassingly sentimental wishes. There are a couple of "humor" cards but they are few and far between and not really that funny. If you get anything other than flowers, chocolate or stuffed animals, your mate doesn't really love you. At least that's the message I'm getting.

But if you don't get an enormous, cheesy card or any of the above gifts, you could always look to the stars or see a numerologist. On the front page of the Bangalore Times (the trashy section of the the Times of India), they devoted the whole left hand column to predicting the futures of hot Bollywood couples using numerology. In this obviously, very scientific study, they use both astrology and a complicated number system to decipher the personality of each partner. "Saif [Ali Khan born on August 16, 1970] is ruled by Neptune and the Moon (No. 2), and is a Leo who's also governed by the Sun (No. 1). His compound number is 5 (16+8+1970 = 5)." Based on that logic - ruled by the Sun and Moon and clearly a 5 - of course I would believe everything else that follows. One couple is doomed because while his name adds up to 7 and hers adds up to 6 (Bipasha Basu and John Abraham - how they get 6 and 7 is unclear), their birth dates are not in harmony. Perhaps Sir and I should consult the author of the article.

In a place where arranged marriages are still commonplace, the fact that they are making such a to-do about Valentine's Day, I think, seems a bit odd. Although I am told, that it is common for parents to consult astrologers or numerologist (or both) when choosing a mate for their children to ensure a solid match. So I'm sure a good deal of arranged marriages are loving marriages but the emphasis of all this Valentine's Day advertising and merchandising is on those who are dating and courting because of true love (and not some arrangement). But I suppose just further evidence of how things are changing around here, particularly among the young generation that now has jobs and money their parent's never had and are living away from home and meeting lots of new and interesting people. Seems like a win-win to me. They can try to find love and get out and date and if that doesn't work out, they can always rely on an arranged relationship. Because, after all, in any society, coupling up is a good thing. Isn't that what St. Valentine said, if you don't have love, and buy that love candies and flowers on February 14th, you'll never find happiness?

For a newlywed, I'm awfully cynical, no? Look up the history of Valentine's Day...you too, will read about how there were in fact three men named Valentine who were martyred by the Catholic Church and one did write a love note while in prison but beyond that have little to do with love. The Pagans were the ones who held a "fertility festival" in February which was once considered the beginning of spring (new life/fertility) and most likely because of the Christians, the Pagan holiday was morphed with tales of one of the St. Valentine's to create a "holiday" for lovers. Around the seventeenth century, the Brits started exchanging small tokens on this "holiday" and from there, slowly it's snowballed into what it is today. That is a very brief and not at all comprehensive history of the historically elusive holiday but the point is, it has a shaky history at best, so instead of wasting your money on stuffed animals and hearts, just to go to dinner and love the one your with - which is what we plan to do. You should save all the mushy love stuff for the every other day.

Happy Valentine's Day.