Love is in air on eve of Valentine's Day celebrations

Mumbai, Feb 13 (UNI) Even as the moral brigade gears up tomorrow to oppose 'Valentine's Day', accusing a certain section of people for the westernisation of Indian culture, the major outlets in the city are brimming with gifts ranging from a few hundreds to thousands of rupees to celebrate St Valentine's birthday.

Gifts like CD's, DVD's, cards, jewellery, stuffed toys and diamonds, and candlelight dinners, special hotel packages are also available to celebrate the 'V'day.

Some of the chartbusters this year which are selling like hot cake at the major venues in the city include books ''Bridges of Madison County'', ''Love Story'' by Erich Segal, books by author Kahlil Gibran, CD's and DVD's of Richard Gere-Julia Roberts starrer ''Pretty Woman'', BackStreet Boys, Boyzone, ''Gone with the Wind'', ''Romeo and Juliet'', ''Titanic'', ''Air Supply'', 'Steve Wonder', ''Elton John' and Bryan Adams to name a few.

Some of the all time Hindi favourites also include 'Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak','Maine Pyar Kiya', 'Taj Mahal', 'Sohni Mahiwal', 'Heer Ranjha' and the record busting 'DDLJ'.

The practice of exchanging cards for 'Valentine's Day', usually between men and women, began in the second half of the twentieth century, says a research by Susan Dorling.

Interestingly, the Valentine culture was imported into North America by the English settlers in the 19th century. And it is celebrated by exchanging gifts, chocolates and flowers especially roses, often accompanied by a greeting card.

Ironically, the aggressive promotion by the diamond&jewellery industry in the 80's, brought jewellery to the center stage as a gift of favourite choice synonymous with love.

What started as lovers day in the 19th century, Valentine's Day of late has has undergone several transformations and is today known more for its platonic greetings of ''Happy Valentine's Day'', bringing the young and the old under the single turf of merry making and jubilation.

History shows that the early Egyptian belief of each human being possessing a heart, originated from the Egyptian word - ''AB''- for a combined ''heart-soul''.

Similarly, Christianity also embraced heart symbology early in their history.

However, several other studies have also indicated that heart symbol originates from the ancient symbol of the Roman figure 'Nimrod', who was worshipped as a God under the name ''Baal''. Again the word ''bal'' meant ''heart''. The similarity between this word and the name ''Baal'' is thought to be a significant connection between Nimrod and the modern-day heart symbol.

In modern parlance, Valentine's Day, has become a hyped and highly comercialised occasion like any other holiday in a year. As a result, the day has become synonymous for rest, merrymaking and to catch some lost time with family and friends.

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