The Unfortunate Commercialisation of that Thing Called Love

Call me a pessimist, a cynic or an idiot, but I have to agree with a large part of society when they say that Valentines Day is overrated and stupid. Before I start off, I’d like to make it clear that no girl has done anything to me that forced me to write this. Wait… That could possibly be the reason why, couldn’t it? Hmmm…

Anyway. Valentines. It’s a day where one is supposed to express his/her love to his/her lover. Apparently, it’s a day where you decide to ‘care’ for your loved one more than any other day in the year. But don’t you think that thanks to our human ways, we’ve materialised and commercialised this entire event just like we’ve materialised and commercialised everything else? I hardly believe that on this day, people actually love their ‘one and only’ more than they did the previous day. It’s stupid. If you want to express your love to someone, do it throughout the entire year and not on some hyped-up day. And if this occasion is about buying expensive gifts and putting on a fake smile, then I really pity the human race.

I was reading the newspaper the other day about how Halle Berry’s boyfriend said that since it was Valentines Day, he’d like to spend time with her and not just shower her with presents. Melted your hearts didn’t he? Bollocks to him! If you actually loved someone, you’d want to spend time with that person irrespective of what day it is. Since it’s Valentines Day, it seems. Whether it’s her birthday, her cousin’s funeral or even a random day like February 14th, love is love, and days shouldn’t change jack-shit about it.

I admit that a few years back (hell! A year back even!) I had these great impressions of this day. “Wow! A ‘lovely day’ where you can make a girl swoon by giving her a box of chocolates!” Most of us are in this ‘puppy-love-I-dunno-what-I’m-doing’ stage and have no clue what true emotions are actually all about. I’m not saying all of us are. Most of us. So don’t jump on me and say “Screw you! I know what it’s about” cause I’ve learnt from past experiences not to generalise. This day is like a game for most of us teens with raging hormones (and empty pockets.) ‘How many idiots can you con into being your Valentine?’ kind of thing. Bleh! Yeah, I play along too and I may have had two Valentines this year (don’t shoot/judge/criticise me)… But it’s all still a farce. I don’t have anyone to truly love and without that, this is just a day like any other. Even if I did have someone to love, it would’ve been just like any other day, but different because I would have had someone to love. WTF am I saying?

By reading the Bangalore Times and being deceived that “you can show her that you care by buying her a car this Valentines Day” then I feel sorry for you. If you had someone who required materialistic possession to believe that you loved her and cared for her, then enjoy it till is lasts (basically, till you go broke,) my friend. I’m not telling you not to buy gifts for the person you love. I’m trying to convey the fact that buying things for someone does not necessarily mean that you love them more. And courtesy of our obsession with money, man has made this impression in almost all of us (see, no generalising) that on Valentines Day you HAVE to buy something for your significant other. If you don’t, you let him/her down. Tsk, tsk.

Sorry for being so sour. It’s not like me. And my new year resolution doesn’t seem to have much hope. I’m probably just a bit moody right now and I’m saying everything that’s on the top of my head (Isn’t that my hair?)…It could have even be due to the fact that I’m broke and couldn’t afford any Valentines gift this year… Hehe…
St. Valentines was probably a good chap. Our idiocy and tendency to commercialise everything is just horrible. Maybe Valentines Day was something meaningful in the past. But in today’s world, it has lost all its charm.