Saturday, February 14, 2009

Neo Valentine Saga

In spite of what you have been told by everyone, the truth is that Valentine’s day originated hundreds of years ago in India and to top it all in Gujarat!
Gujarati men, especially the Patels, continually mistreated and disrespected their wives (Patelianis). One fine day, it happened to be February 14th, one brave Pateliani, having had her enough ‘torture’ from her husband, finally chose to rebel by beating him up with a ‘velan’ (rolling pin). Yes, the same velan which she used daily to make chapattis for him – only this time, instead of the dough, it was the husband who was flattened. This was a momentous occasion for all Gujarati women. A revolt soon spread like wild fire, with thousands of housewives beating up their husbands with their velans.
There was an outburst of moaning by ‘chapatti-ed’ husbands all over Anand and Ahemadabad. The Patel menfolk quickly learnt their lesson and started behaving respectfully with their Patelianis. Thereafter, on February 14th every year, the women of Gujarat would ceremoniously beat up their husbands to commemorate that eventful day. Soon the Gujarati men realized that in order to avoid this ordeal they needed to present gifts to their wives…… and so they brought flowers and sweetmeats. Hence the tradition began.
As Gujarat fell under the influence of Western Culture, that day was called ‘Velan-tine Day’. The ritual soon spread to Britain and many other Western countries, specifically the catchwords “Velantine”. Of course in their foreign tongues, it was first anglicized to ‘Valentine’. And there after, February 14th came to be known as “Valentine’s Day” !

-Take this post with a pinch of salt and an ounce of humor, this is not meant to hurt communal feelings.

4 comments:

Bharat Dhoot said...

very nice capture of the beautiful day...
kp it up...!

RP said...

Very informative. I didn't know about such thing happening.

Regards,
RP
Ravositti.com

Unknown said...

It was fun, I wonder from where do you get ideas like these?? do you get to read these kind of stuff somewhere or they are just a mere piece of fiction??

Whatever it may be, I enjoyed reading it like hell and you do keep writing stuff's like these!!

workhard said...

LOL, that was funny, im so proud of the Gujrati women..


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