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Valentine’s Day!
The words bring to mind roses, champagne and young love; romantic couples walking hand in hand and enjoying each other’s company, whispering sweet nothings to each other.
But the idea I had of Valentine’s Day as a child was very different. I should start by saying that the only reason I even knew about Valentine’s Day as a child was that the principal of my school was an American.
February, for us, meant that all art periods would go into making Valentines. Each student had to make at least 2 valentines; one for our parents and one for a classmate. We could make more but two was the minimum; most of us would try to make them for all our close friends.
For two weeks we would spend every art period cutting out hearts from pink and red chart paper. We would use our common art supplies to make our valentines as special as possible. We would try and hide what we were doing from our classmates so that our valentines would be more special. I remember one time a classmate got some lace from home and used that to decorate her cards. Well once we knew about it every parent had their child begging for fancy lace for school!
A big box was kept on the class teacher’s desk and we would pop our valentines in it as and when we finished them. On Valentine’s Day, it would be opened and all the cards distributed. The popular kids got more than others of course but I can’t remember any kid being left out.
It was a simpler time. The hearts we gave each other had Happy Valentine’s Day written on them, They were decorated with glitter and drawings and whatever we could manage. Valentine’s Day was about showing the people in your life how much you cared for them. It was about loving your parents, your friends and yes maybe someone special but Valentine’s Day was about all kinds of love.
Today, when I see the build-up to Valentine’s Day with Rose Day, Chocolate Day, Propose Day and whatnot I feel sad.
I feel sad because this is one more sweet and wonderful occasion that has become so commercialized that it has lost its essence.
Valentine’s Day is now only about couples. It is about being showy and ostentatious….the bigger the better.
But love …love comes from the heart and it doesn’t always need roses and chocolates or the latest deal. What it does need is trust and honesty…and occasionally an acknowledgment doesn’t hurt.
So here’s wishing everyone a happy Valentine’s Day. May your loved ones always be close to you and may you always be surrounded by happiness.
Asfiya Rahman, a management graduate, is a teacher by occupation and a writer by inclination. She has published many short stories in different publications and is the author of the sports drama trilogy Wild, Wild read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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