Valentines Day

Love is in the air and with the call of cuckoo; it’s the search of valentine gift for your valentines that is making all the noise amidst the fragrance of valentine flowers. With the dark clouds of recession, economic slowdown, job loss and what not, you can still feel the magic of Valentine day if you have a heart that pulsates, a mind that searches and a soul that is stirred with the murmur of the leaves and rippling of the brook.

Check out my week long blog posts dedicated to all Valentines worldwide from scouting for valentine gifts, sending valentine wishes in a unique way to how to win your valentines heart with the best valentine ideas.

Before that, did you know when Valentine’s Day got commercialized or what is the story behind sending the Archie’s or Hallmark Valentine card and with the post offices making the right business during this month of romantic February?

Mystery shrouds like a mist as we explore the history of Valentines Day. Besides fanciful legends, Valentines Day is associated with Roman tradition and Christian vestiges. All that most of us know is that this day of 14th February is associated with some St. Valentine.

One story is that King Claudius II of Rome was a stone-hearted man who believed that men without any family bonding made better soldiers. Hence he denounced and outlawed marriages in his empire. The Saint Valentine, priest, there realized the injustice of the decree and he secretly continued to perform marriages of young lovers. However, when he was caught doing this act, St. Valentine suffered martyrdom on 14th February about the year 270 AD.

Some legend says that when Claudius II caught St Valentine performing the rites of marriage secretly, he was thrown into jail and was pronounced death sentence. But there, he left a farewell note for the prison guard’s daughter who had become his friend and signed it as From your Valentine.

In no time St. Valentine’s popularity grew from a heroic figure to a romantic icon and by the Middle Ages he was the most popular saint in France and England.

Again Christian legends revolve around the feast of Lupercalia, a fertility festival dedicated to Roman God of agriculture Faunus. On the eve of this festival name of Roman girls were written and placed in a jar. Each young man would draw the names of girls from the jar and would remain as partners during the festival. In many occasions the pairing lasted an eternal bondage.
Gradually 14th February marked the day of exchanging love notes and literary creativity with poems and valentine gifts rose to greater height. It was in 1800s that introduction of commercial valentine began. Since then and till now behind the veil of St. Valentine there is Valentine cards, Valentine gifts, Valentine ideas, Valentine flowers to Valentine sayings…. All with a Cupid’s heart !!!

Check out more : http://topics-today.blogspot.com/2009/02/say-it-with-valentine-roses-on.html

'Halla Bol' beckons

Its' once again a call to the people of Nation to stand up and fight against injustice, corruption and bribery. Raj Kumar Santoshi's Halla Bol is a one man crusade against the evils of the society.
Ajay Devgan alas Ashfaque-ullah is a small townstreet theaterist who under the guidance of Pankaj Kapoor fought the evils for a better cause.

The Halla Bol also gives a glimpse on the movement of street theaterist against the social and political evils. Pankaj Kapoor turned into a social reformer from being a dacoit has a credible performance, few riveting scenes keeping the audience quite engrossed. Ashfaque-ullah changes to Bollywoods' Sameer Khan..not only by name but by all ways that could have been. He makes it big at Bollywood & his living changed bigger. The glams and glamour ruled his life day in and day out. However it just took an incident at a party night that brought out Ashfaque from Sameer Khan. The murder hinting of the reality (Jessica lal Murder case) on that party night fuelled the climax of Halla Bol. And it is here that the story fights out all the bads with support from Ashfaque's wife (Vidya Balan), mentor ( Pankaj Kapoor) and his conscience.

Like Raang De Basanti, Damini, Ghayal, the noise of Halla Bol focuses on the conscience of the man on the street. It lies within as a sleeping volcano, when erupted will cause changes for the better.

Taare Zameen Par , Parenting revisited

As the sun rises in the Eastern horizon, the calendar flashes another day, millions and thousands of people in different parts of this world celebrate their birthdays in one way or the other. It might range from a 105th birthday to an hour old birth of a child. Every one of us have our childhood memories in a special way to oneself. An individuals' childhood is very important in shaping ones future. They are just born in this earth, as naive & innocent as the freshness of the morning dewdrop on the grasses and flowers. It is the parents that they first look upto. It is the smell of the mother first, that they feel comfortable with. As they blinks to open the eyes for few seconds more they learn to see the fathers' wave. They grow few days old and then get familiar with the colours around, the noise everywhere and recognises the smiling faces all over him. They know they are important, they feel special always and make you utterly special too.The parents begin their noting downs in child book like the first sitting, the first crawl, the first tooth, the first walk, the first sound. The notes remain shut in their books. Begins the wave of comparison with the similar child around him or few children above his age in the neighbourhood.

Knowingly or unknowingly the child has been subjected to a feeling of not good.
Then as the child put his first step away from his familiarity to a school where he is expected to practice self discipline, a place where he would learn how to become a successful man, he is just thrown away in a melee of the unknowns.Their splash of colours here and there seem to fade away. It gets replaced by dotted lines & cursive writing within the stipulated time frame. They fail to respond to their own stimuli. Courtesy--the both working parents or the hectic schedule of this frantic pace of life. This modernity, tech savvy way of life carries with it a baggage of disadvantages too.Everywhere & in every step we look out at the "faayda" (profit)..little knowing that the damage on the minds of the lil' ones is already done...

Aamir Khan's Taare Zameen Par potrays many a "Ishaan" amongst the children of today. Its an awakening. Parents to realise that they are the bows & their children are like arrows going in varied directions according to their own pace & wish. Inculcate in them the values of Life not the value of only numbers. Children are really special. In our daily life with busy schedules and hectic pressures, the important question to ask us, the parents... are we spending enough quality time with our children... are we having that much patience and time to listen to them... to understand them.