By Mohammed Arifuddin for TwoCircles.net,
The much-enthralling Valentines’ festivity has finally come to an end. Youth were seen engrossed in the Valentine-mania, much more than love. A whole new range of ecstasies offered by the big-shot cardporations (read as corporations) is truly fascinating. Flowers begin to shower all around; soothing music plays all day and delightful fragrance is felt every moment. Does the world really turn so beautiful every February?
Love is a holistic notion which encompasses all of human feelings like affection, compassion, respect and commitment. It is such a spectacular emotion that you tend to sacrifice everything for someone unconditionally. It is an instinctive behavior in humans without which the mankind would not have flourished. But, confining love to one day in particular makes no sense. As long as we don’t realize the true concept of love, we would end up reading reports about frequent cases of rapes, domestic violence, divorces, conflicts between siblings, rivalries and other inhuman acts.
As a growing teenager, I had always wondered, “Why is love so much in the air?” It is because, “It’s business in the air!” The consumerist nature of the Valentines’ season is quite appalling. About 180 million cards are exchanged on Valentines’ day and the average revenue generated by the industry is a whopping $13.19 Billion. Can you just imagine, $13.19 Billion on a single day in a world where 1.7 billion people live in absolute poverty! Businesses desperately look forward to the Valentines’ season, much more than us. It’s their second biggest day of the year, after the New Year celebrations. As if making business on February 14th alone was not enough, they also added other preceding celebrations such as Rose day, Propose day, Chocolate day, Hug day, Kiss day, and what not.
Does this really teach us Love and Compassion? Or, are we falling prey to the commercial interests of the multi-national corporations? Food for thought!!
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Mohammed Arifuddin is a Software Engineer based in Hyderabad.