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35 1,000 2.2 14 centrespread centrespread 15 FEBRUARY 14-20, 2016 FEBRUARY 14-20, 2016 Earlier this week, in the run-up to Valentine's Day, the moral police was quite predictably at work in the Capital, splattering some 35 Metro stations with posters, invoking the youth to worship their parents rather than celebrating Valentine's Day. One could of course do both without compromise, but common sense has seldom been the strength of the extremist groups who routinely come out every year to protest against the ostensible travesty of Indian culture that takes place on February 14. through the controversies, facts and trivias on the dayET Magazine that's meant runs to you be a celebration of love, joy and verve: :: Joyshree Baruah Clipping Cupid's Wings MORAL POLICING WHERE LOVE IS WAR SINGLETONS CAN CELEBRATE Vigilante groups have been known to attack bars It was in 1997 that the While fl eeing the rose petals and pasty chocolates sounds FEBRUARY 14 AS and pubs and have forced to shut down exhibitions right-wing Shiv Sena fi rst appealing, the scene is not so rosy in these countries: SINGLES and issued diktats against western attires. Activists announced its opposition of Shiv Sena, Hindu Mahasabha, Bajrang Dal and to Valentine's Day, calling AWARENESS Hindu Yuva Vahini lead the march when it comes to it 'western culture' and DAY (SAD) disrupting Valentine’s Day celebrations in India resolved to stop the practice Malaysia and Pakistan Iran INSTEAD Indonesia Religious groups Valentine’s Day Offi cials and Muslim consider events such celebrations clerics from these as Valentine's Day are expressly Last year, Muslim-dominated and the New Year to prohibited. members of the countries prohibit be a celebration of For unmarried the celebrations of Western culture and are couples especially, student wing Valentine’s Day, claiming immoral and anti-Islam. demonstrations THE MATCHMAKERS of Shiv Sena, it to be un-Islamic. They For them, those who of affection could argue that it promotes commemorate these lead straight to a GIFTS, GIFTS AND the Bharatiya casual sex and the events are infi dels and jail cell — or worse Vidyarthi Sena, drinking of alcohol should be punished CUPID EROS KAMADEVA MORE GIFTS stormed the The son of Venus and Mars, He is the Greek He is the Hindu Botanical Garden Cupid is the Roman God of counterpart of Cupid. God of love. 'Kama'ma' Saudi Arabia desire, affection and love. Eros is represented as the means sensuous love, wish, in Nagpur and Valentine's Day is banned by His arrows signifyy ssonon oof Aphrodite, and desire, longing and 'Deva' means A list of the most in-demand made couples do the country's religious police. desires and emotionss whwhose mischievous heavenly or divine. He is gifts on Valentine's Day: sit-ups Women and men sit separately of love, which he iinterventions in represented as a young, Greeting Cards in restaurants and public aims at Gods and ththe affairs of Gods handsome winged man with displays of affection are taboo humans, causing aand mortals cause green skin and whose bows are Date Night them to fall deeply bbonds of love to made of sugarcane with a string Chocolates/ Candy in love foform, often illicitly of honeybees, and his arrows are A Uttar Pradesh wing of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha had set up decorated with fragrant fl owers Flowers ‘fl ying squads’ to corner couples — particularly inter-faith ones — on Valentine’s Day and ask them to get married right away to prove their love Colognes/ Perfumes The unit coined a new phrase ‘prem pariksha’ (test of love) in which AND WHERE LOVE IS IN THE AIR the activists declared that it will marry off any couple who publicly displays affection More than About Right-wing Hindu group Hindu Janajagruti Other parties and religious groups 1 billion Every Valentine's Day, the Samiti claimed that celebrating Valentine's who have been known to protest Valentine’s Day cards Italian city of Verona, where Day and following Western traditions the apparently ‘anti-India’ day are exchanged each 2.2 73% 35 Shakespeare's lovers Romeo lakhs is the average million Richard Cadbury ‘blindly results in rapes and other are Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Akhil year. This makes it of people who and Juliet lived, receives about number of wedding heart-shaped produced the fi rst source: bbc, timeanddate, sexual assaults’. Its cadre distributed Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the second largest buy fl owers for proposals on boxes of chocolate box of chocolates huffi ngtonpost, wikipedia, pamphlets in colleges, railway stations, Sri Ram Sena, Students Islamic seasonal card sending Valentine's Day Valentine's Day are sold for for Valentine's Day media reports bus-stations "demonstrating the Organisation of India, Hindu time of the year, after 1,000 are men ill-effects of Valentine's Day" Munnani, Hindu Makkal Katchi Christmas letters addressed to Juliet each year Valentine's Day in the late 1800s.
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