Gautam Ganguly
(gautamganguly2012@gmail.com)
The all engulfing euphoria, craze, and passion witnessed of late at the celebration of Valentine’s Day by youngsters obliterating all earthly differences like caste, creed, social standings, nationalities, etc. had compelled me to run to ‘Google’, the mother of all ‘search engines’, to comprehend its connotation and significance.
Among many mythological explanations about the origin of Valentine’s Day celebration, the most acceptable explanation is the one that states that during the days of the Roman kingdom, the Roman Emperor Claudius II was trying to bolster his army and he forbade young men to marry. The Roman emperor believed that ‘single men made better soldiers’. In the spirit of love, St. Valentine defied the ban and performed secret marriages. Valentine was executed on February 14.
The history of civilization is replete with endless instances of celebrities from different walks of life being ardent devotees of the Roman God, Cupid, and even succumbing to committing delightfully comical ‘Freudian slips or lapses’ enabling teeming millions to get glimpses of amorous facets of their worshipped icons. Even a cursory glance familiarizes us with interesting anecdotes involving luminaries and distinguished personalities of different decades and countries who had hogged limelight as much by their spectacular public performance as by their off-field romantic activities.
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, two of the immortal Hollywood celebrities, had met on the sets of Hollywood classic movie Cleopatra, heralding the beginning of one of the most publicized and turbulent love stories of all time, captivating millions of their admirers by their relationship. However, while Burton remained loyal to his ladylove, Elizabeth’s relentless quest for new ‘love partners’ was fierce and all pervasive. Ironically, despite Elizabeth’s immensely successful film career, all her eight marriages had calamitous endings!!!
In the midst of growing euphoria of the casanovas across the world to celebrate the Valentine’s Day, one comes across abundance of interesting and hilarious stories. In a classic story of ‘high-tech’ romance, the boy and girl had continued dating ‘online’ for over a year. They met each other finally on a Valentine’s Day. The girl’s father had asked the boy humorously to spell out which line he had used to win over his bright daughter? The boy sheepishly replied, “I had used a regular 56 k Modem”, much to the amusement of everyone around.
Vindicating the immortal saying that ‘love defies all boundaries and lines of control’, Indian tennis heartthrob Sania Mirza had fallen in love with former Pakistani cricket captain Shoaib Malik, brushing aside acute national hostilities far behind. While the ‘Sania-Shoaib’ conjugal relation continues blissfully, another cross border love affair between Mohsin Khan, a Pakistani cricketer, and Reena Roy, a successful Bollywood heroine of the 80s had crash landed immediately after taking off!!!! The separation, the heart-broken plight of Reena Roy’s ‘real-life’ tragedy in a way, resembles with the immensely popular song,
‘Sheesha ho ya dil ho Aakhir toot jaata hai’.
Interestingly, Communist China that had closed all ties with the rest of the world from 1949 and restored relations in 1978, celebrates Valentine’s Day as many as six times in a year. The most significant is the observance of ‘Lantern festival’ celebrated on July 7. In the olden days, ladies were generally confined at homes. This quintessential festival provided the opportunities to the ladies to go out with lanterns for ‘dating’ and look for life partners breaking away from the conservative social shackles. However, with the growing popularity of internet, February 14 is now celebrated with euphoria and chocolates like the rest of the world, especially by the young Chinese generation.
The mid 60s saw the emergence of Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, a highly sophisticated cricketer who became the darling of the Indian crowd with his aggressive style of batting and his acrobatic fielding. While Pataudi was holding the reins of Indian cricket, Sharmila Tagore, the actress, migrating from Tollywood to Bollywood, became a heartthrob among cinegoers. In the year 1965, Pataudi was bowled over by the mesmerizing attraction of Sharmila Tagore when they had met first time at a party in New Delhi. The love affair was finally translated into wedlock in 1969, a relation that lasted without any hitch or controversy till inevitable, cruel death snatched Pataudi away in 2012.
The 1994 US Open saw an unseeded player with a startling dress code, sporting black shorts, black socks with a black cap, sprang pleasant surprise with his aggressive style of game bulldozing a number of top seeded players to reach the final. The discerning readers will understand that this player is none other than the charismatic Andre Agassi. The heart of Agassi was won over by a highly charming and graceful Steffi Graff, one of the living legends of Tennis. Their courtship culminated in marriage at Las Vegas in 2001. The romance between the two continues till date.
Although, the celebration of Valentine’s Day is a comparatively new phenomenon in the Indian context, however, Indian romanticism dates back to the days of the emperor Shahjahan, the great Mughal Emperor. The most fantastic gift of love in the annals of mankind is the Taj Mahal.
Love as a passion has remained inextricably linked with the human psyche since the dawn of civilization. Both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, two of our epics, throw illuminating lights on this eternal human passion. Even Adolf Hitler, arguably one of the most hated men in contemporary history with his known misanthropic attitude, could not escape from this emotion and had a tumultuous love affair with Eva Braun.