the horrid-kovai-memories of  FEB  14  1998  had just begun to haunt me - it's creepy & spooky.

st. valentine's day massacre of  FEB  14  1929  at chicago was a night-terror - more creepier & spookier than ever.

in a country like india that had witnessed only a cancerous lop-sided-growth, thanks to the I-T boom, people seldom got to celebrate valentine's day in the right-spirit it ought to be celebrated. movies, media & the market here have only blindly-ended by sexing-up valentine's day - it was all about boy-friends, girl-friends, roses, chocolates, cards, love-letters, dating, dancing, boozing, smoking, motor-biking, etc, etc & ultimately peaking-up in the bed with someone.

ever since valentine's day became a fashion in this part of the world, there have been more losses than gains to it's civilization & culture, all-thanks to the pursuits of the protagonists & antagonists of valentine's day, yet, the market flourished & probably also sold more roses, chocolates, cards, smokies, drugs, wine, women & condoms.

with kali-yuga having witnessed cultural-shock, social-denigration, sick-communities & sick-societies, one may not be surprised, if the future pulled-up a day / days in remembrance of the multi-tasking criminals (eve-teasers, pornographers, molesters, rapists, killers & etc). should i then have no choice other than to float with the majority, let me atleast plead, that credit be given to indigenous-talent over some western-ones - let us then call it dr. prakash's day & not some kenny's day (kenneth bianchi) or italian stallion's day (angelo buono) or ted bundy's day or zodiac killer's day.

i was neither against valentine's day nor into some polished-kind of moral-policing. it was just a cry to infuse the spirit & values behind valentine's day to our folks that have thoroughly mis-understood it. it should be a day rigged-in-responsibility & saluting st. valentine, instead of forging it in meagre fun & frolic.

valentine's day being a culture-specific-western-concept should find an indigenous-equivalent, like, the likes of baba amte being commemorated on the same day & slowly over the years there'd be a shift in the understanding & mood-trends for the rest to fall in place. the present un-healthy frenzy clouding the event would become obsolete then. this seemed like the only-prayer-upon-my-lip for the present social-malady.

let us first learn to become spirited-ambassadors of love & then we'd spontaneously-metamorphose into compassionate & conscientious love-makers, vis-a-vis, even polygamists & polyandrists with responsibility.

may i say, " wishing you all an inventive baba amte's day on FEB 14 " ?

may i say, " wishing you all a salvationary mother theresa's day on FEB 14 " ?

dr.s. selvakumaran, erode, india.