The season of love is at hand, but not everyone is thrilled... February 14 was once a Christian feast of St Valentine but now has become the universal day for showing your SO — special one, for the uninitiated — how much you love them. And as is obvious, those without a SO are not exactly on cloud nine.
Their emotions seem to have spilled on to certain social media platforms, where they seem to be planning everything possible to either disrupt those special moments couples may be sharing, or make sure that PDAs are not a common sight on the streets on February 14.
Then again, these may be their sarcastic response to the saccharine-sweetness that the Day of Love can sometimes leave as an aftertaste.
How did it all start?
It all seems to have started with comedy group All India Bakchod, who posted an event on Facebook for Mumbai that entails "Shouting 'Pyaar Ek Dhoka Hai' On Valentine's Day."
They wrote in the "Description" section of the event: "Love is an illusion and every couple ought to know that. Hence, we shall all shout 'Pyaar Ek Dhoka Hai' on Valentine's Day to save couples from the disease that Love is."
To top it off, they paraphrased the famous "Tryst with destiny" speech that our first prime minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru gave over the radio to announce India's Independence. AIB wrote on Facebook about shouting "Love is a betrayal":
Long years ago we made a tryst with singlehood, and now the time has come when we shall redeem our pledge. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the couples wish each other a Happy Valentine's Day, we singles shall unite to shout Pyaar Ek Dhoka Hai.
A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when the souls of all you singles, long suppressed, find utterance.
It is fitting that at this golden moment we take the pledge to make Valentine's Day, the happiest day for singles around India.
Gear up for the biggest revolution of the 21st century. Let's show it to the world that Valentine's Day is best celebrated without a Valentine.
Invite all your goddam single friends to this event and serve the larger cause of humanity.
And their fans responded in style. More than 7,800 people have said on Facebook that they are "Going" to the event.
Some others showed their support by posting videos. Here's the response from MIT Aurangabad:
And here's singer-songwriter Swati Marwal singing about her own love story and how "Pyaar Ek Dhoka Hai".
Other groups are joining in
Soon, some other comedy and sarcasm groups and pages — and some not even connected with comic content — seemed to be joining the mass expression of sarcasm and frustration.
Here's another group, The Desi Feed, with its own AIB-inspired event where it plans on "Shouting 'Ishq Ajooba Hai Na Jane Kitno Ko Le Ke Dooba Hai'" at Connaught Place in New Delhi from 6 am to 11:59 pm on February 14. Their message effectively is: "Love is a marvel. It has drowned innumerable people."
Here's one more event, created by the Facebook page DU updates, which claims there will be "Reciting HANUMAN CHALISA on Valentine's Day" from 7 pm to 9 pm at Connaught Place. At the time of the writing of this report, more than 1,000 people have said they will attend the event, while another 7,000 are "Interested" in it.
And here's another event by The Desi Byte that entails "Shouting 'Bajrang Dal wale aagaye' in front of couples" at Lovers' Point in Mawal near the city of Pune. The aim, clearly, is to disrupt some whisperings of sweet nothings with the anticipation of admonition and beatings from the right-wing outfit that vehemently opposes anything Western.
Even institutes under the Panjab University will apparently witness similar events. One such event in Chandigarh will have participants "Saying 'Tera Bhi Katega' To Couples On Valentine's Day" as a warning to couples that one of them will cheat on the other.
Then there's this event from Bhubaneswar — the capital of Odisha — that simply says "Bajrang Dal Against Valentine's day, Bhubaneswar." And this one is calling upon those who are "Majboori se single" (single by compulsion) rather than "Haq se single" (single by choice) to join the march. Friendzoned and rejected hard, were they?
There is also this "Anti valentine's day march in Kochi" that has been planned by Dank Memes Malayalam to protest against "the glorified commemoration of the apostle of wannabe skanks and philanderers, St Valentine."
Slew of Hindi slogans that will be shouted
Besides those already mentioned, here is a list of slogans that the participants of the above-mentioned events are apparently planning to shout:
Horn bajaa do hummer ka
Naam mita do lover ka
Desh banao einstein ka,
Naam mitaado Valentine ka
Friendzone ka, bhaav ka, block ka,
Sabka badla lega tera faizal
Peg lagalo red wine ka
Naam mitaado valentine ka
There were some other slogans, but they veered too much on the violent or obscene side to be mentioned here.
