Mr. Raman's Valentine

“ February 14th is a special day for every couple in a loving relationship. Be it a relationship of few days or few years every young couple thinks that their love is the ultimate example of true love and go to great extent to demonstrate their love. Sometimes It could be by way of expensive gifts, flowers, chocolates, jewelry and so on. Indian youth are no different from the rest of the world and readily ape this western tradition. Our political parties want to have a say in every aspect of public life and always make an issue out of the celebrations. And this goes on year after year after year. How very monotonous.” Said Sudha to her friends. ” Alas, if only we could celebrate the Valentine’s Day befitting the philosophy which marks this as a special day,” said Madhavi. “I have an idea” shouted Shekhar and said,” let us see if that made any sense and if everyone agrees let us plan the celebration.” They all heard Sekhar and agreed that it was an excellent plan and worked out the details of executing it. This group were friends from the same neighborhood and were living in that place from several years. Sudha, Madhavi, Radha, Lata, Shekhar, Suman, Sagar, Hari and Madhu were the members of this friendly neighborhood group. They invited few other friends, their parents and other elders for a small get together on valentine's day. Though this kind of event on Valentine's Day looked strange, everybody agreed to take part as they had trust in the wisdom of the youth.

On Valentine's Day, on the terrace of one of the houses, the young men and women set a dais and decorated it beautifully with flowers and lights. Everyone assembled with lot of curiosity and enthusiasm. Finally, the young men and women went to Mr. and Mrs. Raman who also were part of the gathering and ushered them on to the dais. They were grandparents of Shekhar. First a video was played, in which there were pictures from different stages of their life. Both were extremely good looking, and pictures were really beautiful. The wedding photographs, the photos when Mr. Raman met with an accident and his wife was by his bed side. It took about a year for Raman to get well. There were photos of various milestones of their life. In their twilight years of their life both had health problems and took care of each other. She was also a breast cancer survivor.

When Mr.Raman was requested to address the audience, he readily agreed.’ Ours was an arranged marriage and we spoke to each other only after marriage. We were too shy to even speak before marriage. Today I can proudly say that we are lovers seeking each other’s support in good times and tough times. We have been married for 40 years and every happy occasion and sad occasion has strengthened our love. Happiness is to be shared and in tough times we seek support of each other. When one has a health crisis, the other one becomes stronger and protects, supports and takes care of the affected partner. We do have differences sometimes, but nothing is stronger than our bond. In this process our love is still growing and will continue to grow till we part by death. We have decided not to grieve if one of us goes, as it is the rule of nature and we have made so many good memories so that the rest of our single lives will be spent by depending on those. So, we are busy making more memories, like watching together the sunrise and sunset, watering the plants in the garden, watch the flowers and many more. We believe true love keeps growing forever and becomes stronger by the day.” He concluded.

Everyone rose from their seats and clapped incessantly for 10 minutes. The youth were happy that they got to know what true love is. It was the best valentine's day celebration, that too made to be a community event for across the age groups. It turned out to be unique as the young men and women planned out.