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Saint Valentine would be squirming in his grave at the Via Flaminia, north of Rome, every 14th February looking at how couples and lovers (and singles too) all over the world "celebrate" the day he was buried!

I am not sure how many, if any, of us would even know the history behind celebrating Valentine's Day. 14th February has today become synonymous with pomp, expensive gifts, proclamation of love with garish display of wealth. Not that there is anything wrong with love, but for gift and card companies like Hallmark and Archies, it makes commercial sense to drum up the day and whip up passions because they see tremendous rise in profits from 1st thru 14th February every year.

Gone are the days of young lovers anxiously looking forward to meet on 14th Feb., on the sly, romantically gazing in each other's eyes, saying sweet nothings, with just a one beautiful Red Rose in between their tightly interlinked hands. Men are known for not being open with their feelings, not being able to say: "I love You" or "I miss you" to their girls or wives. Valentine's Day was their best opportunity to do so. Women looked forward to it because it meant finally getting to hear the innermost feelings of their men.

But now, things are different. With thousands of Radio and TV channels going on and on about Valentine's Day, with cellphone texts, sending messages to your loved ones is easy, electronic and impersonal.

Valentine's day today is not about love anymore, it is about show-off. It is about new clothes, it is about limo rides, it is about five star dinners, it is about cruises etc. The feeling, the passion and the desire is all but lost.

In almost all the countries I have been to, I have realized that Valentine's Day is too commercialized. In developing nations such as India and China, the race to get ahead of your peers is so fierce that most youngsters are now spending almost all of their monthly salary on Valentine's Day alone!

Oh how I would love to have those days back. Those days when Valentine's Day was all about red roses, a movie and a peck on the cheeks (and then days and days of talking about it!)

As they say, it is time for us to stop and smell the roses. Happy St. Valentine's Day!

Learn more about this author, Amit Nagpal.
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