“Everybody, and everything has a time and place, ours is here and now!” someone special to me had given me that card while we were relishing an ice cream.He had confessed his love there and then! Love has been in the air since then,for sure!

Valentine’s Day was not known to us in my growing years; at least not in the place where I grew up, neither in Orissa nor in Andhra Pradesh. It was only when I was in the University that it started to dawn on everyone about this day, and that too when we looked at the greeting cards in the shops.

When I was in school and in my undergrad years, I never had any kind of ‘interest’ in boys whatsoever. For me they were just friends, some very close and some just acquaintances. I had a lot of friends, both boys and girls, but that’s all they were, friends!! While doing Masters,I knew the looks of the boys, I realized the feelings some developed, but I always had the ‘ignore’ button!! Not until he came along that I realized ‘Love’!

Valentine’s day would have been just another day for me, had it not been for my beau back then, now my husband. I received beautiful cards from him and I sent out equally beautiful ones, thus celebrating our togetherness, though far away from each other. That day and today, things haven’t changed much, but our relationship has! So glad that I’m after all married to ‘My Valentine’ that I had met 23 years back.

One Valentine’s Day that I’ll always remember is the one that happened to be two days before my wedding day! All of us, my family, my relatives, his family, and relatives, all of us were in the same wedding venue place , though put up in different rooms. I had long been wishing to celebrate that last one as a ‘valentine’ valentine, before forever becoming a ‘wifey’ valentine. Definitely not the same for sure! I thought that since we all were in the same place, I would get to have a quiet moment with him, but it never happened! So, I thought of sending him a card at least, which I had bought lovingly to hand it to him personally.

One of my cousins’ was the ‘cat with the bell’ and she went to give it to him. She came back to give me a shock! She delivered the Valentine card to my would-be mom-in-law as she couldn’t get to him! I just kept my fingers crossed that since the red envelope said in my handwriting ‘To Prasad, from Anita’, she would give it to him, after all !! It was a day after my marriage that my husband and I found the open envelope and the card in it, obvious that someone had opened it. And guess what, we found it in my mom-in-law’s handbag!! Rest is left to one’s imagination!

After coming to the US, I was so smitten by the big deal Valentine’s Day is for everyone. Pink and red flowers, pink and red dresses, beautiful Valentine cards, yummy heart shaped cakes, everything so very romantic! You feel the ‘love in the air’ everywhere, at least a week from Valentine’s Day, and it feels amazing! Even in schools, kids share valentine cards and candy shaped like a heart. Kids wear either red or pink to school and give out the cards to their friends and teachers. The meaning of this day has taken a new meaning in the hands of these little kids, as ‘love for anyone and everyone’ day! Sweet, indeed!