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Valentine’s Day

As Valentine’s Day approaches one’s thoughts go back to the time some 60 years ago, when few knew about it…

Valentine’s Day

As Valentine’s Day approaches one’s thoughts go back to the time some 60 years ago, when few knew about it and fewer took part in the annual observance. Would it surprise you that only places like Agra, Ajmer, Calcutta, Bombay and Madras had some sort of V-Day functions while Delhi took a back seat? In the absence of greeting cards, handwritten notes were stealthily passed on by boys to girls who attracted them.

Mervin Beresford sent a scribbled piece of silver paper with a heart of love and a few drops of blood after a pin-prick to his sweetheart in the adjacent convent. “Mervie Darling”, a handsome grey-eyed chap, was also the school warden’s favourite in times when gay unions were greatly frowned upon.

There was a Nawab Sahib in Agra, who had studied at Oxford and later taken a diploma In journalism from California University in 1916. Faiyaz Khan Sherwani used to celebrate Valentine’s Day as “Majnu-ki-Salgraha (birthday of the famous Arabic lover Majnu, whose infatuation for his beloved Laila was immortalised in a medieval classic by Nizami).

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Once the Nawab got his African retainer Almas married for the seventh time at the age of 75 as he never wanted him to remain a lone widower. Another time he arranged the marriage of two goats and then two monkeys.

In the 1960’s Valentine’s Day came to Delhi’s Civil Lines when St Xavier’s School came up. But since there was no English medium girl’s school nearby, love-notes were sent to Presentation Convent, housed in the same compound as St Mary’s Church, near Old Delhi Station and Mor Sarai.

Another incident is also worth reporting ~ two teachers of St Xavier’s, Peter and Irene, who were engaged, had gone to Nicholson Park nearby to spend an intimate evening when they were accosted by a burly constable who forced them to part with some money to avoid the embarrassment of being taken to the police station. Now the main impediment are rowdy anti-Valentine’s Day agitators. Incidentally, as early as the 14th century, the great Geoffrey Chaucer of Canterbury Tales fame, hailed the day as one when even birds took new mates. Happy V-Day!

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