Resumo de Valentine?s Day Fever Grips Youths All Over India

Valentine?s Day fever grips youths all over India
Love was in the air as twosomes thronged parks, restaurants and malls in major cities to celebrate Valentine?s Day with roses, chocolates and sweet nothings under the stern watch of Hindu hardline groups who tried hard to mar the celebrations.

Lovers were everywhere ? holding hands and cosying up in parks and open spaces, meeting in lounges, discotheques, pubs and even parking lots ? as flower sellers made a killing with a single rose stalk going for as much as Rs50 in some places.
It looked as if the Indian heart had wholeheartedly adopted this day as its very own. ?For me the day is too special, since I got my girlfriend on February 14 three years ago. It?s a kind of love anniversary for both of us,? a beaming Moses Phillip, a young executive in the capital, said.
In Mumbai, couples celebrated the day on a low-key keeping the Shiv Sena protests in mind. ?We will be watching a movie and maybe go to a good restaurant. The point is we need to spend time together. We do not have to exhibit it and invite trouble,? said Amrit Mehta, an undergraduate student of economics in Mumbai.
There was a palpable sense of caution among youngsters, especially after the hard stand taken by the Shiv Sena, the Hindu rightwing party, against celebrating the day. The police stepped up security to end the vandalism of card stores that accompanies the celebration every year. Elaborate security arrangements were made to protect gift shop owners and the general public.
In Hyderabad, the Hindu rightwing Bajrang Dal married off a couple to prove the point that marriage was the best way to celebrate love, but the pair had not been found celebrating the day. However, in Kolkata, romance was very much in the air, as Hindu radicals did not attempt to smother the celebrations in Communist-ruled West Bengal.
While traditional spots like the sprawling Victoria Memorial garden, Nandan film complex and the Maidan areas were full of love birds expressing their inner feelings with empty nothings, the new joints like the vast City Centre shopping mall and cine-plex in Salt Lake were chock-a-block with the natty Generation Next crowd.
Valentine?s Day greetings cards, many in Bengali, were selling very well, said shopkeepers despite the growing popularity and convenience of SMS greetings. Heart shaped balloons and candles were also selling well in City Centre. In Indore town, activists of the radical Hindu Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) were arrested yesterday before they could carry out their threat of marring Valentine?s Day celebrations.
Reports reaching Madhya Pradesh state capital Bhopal said 35 activists of the two groups were taken into custody when they gathered at a prominent square armed with hockey sticks, rods and chains. They had intended to visit parks and restaurants to prevent couples from celebrating the day.
Security was upped in Bhopal too where the Bajrang Dal had formed 17 teams to ensure that couples don?t celebrate the day. The group threatened to nab canoodling couples and hand them over to their parents. In Chandigarh, scores of police personnel kept a vigil yesterday to keep lovebirds in the city under check.
Some markets in the city?s famous ?Geri route? (Geri means moving in circles), were full with the colour of love ? red ? with decorated shops and balloon-sellers doing brisk business. The youth had booked restaurants and discos for the evening for a date out with their valentines.
?With so much police around, who cannot think of love on the Geri route. It?s better to let your hair down at the evening party,? said Amrita, a second year arts student as she went around the route accompanied by friends in her car. Barricades had been put up at nearly two dozen places all over the city to keep youngsters under check, especially while driving.
The Shiv Sena in Kerala called for boycotting the celebrations, claiming that it is a Western culture and would breach family bonds in the state. Sena leader M.S. Bhuvanachandran said the outfit had called for protests in Cochin.

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