Heartfelt and hopelessly humorous

VALENTINES DAY SPECIAL

Amit Desai, a Mumbai-based techie, walks into a store. He buys a rose for his wife as a gift for Valentine’s Day. Cliche? Well, here’s the twist in the tale. Amit has just bought a rose made of 22 carat gold!

“It’s eternal, just like my love for her,” he gushes. Going quirky with gifting is the flavour for this year’s Valentine’s Day. Sandeep Patwardhan did just that. A senior project manager at an advertising firm in Mumbai, he says, “I’m gifting my girlfriend a Victorinox Swiss Army Knife as she is a serial trekker and does a bit of camping too. It will come in handy for her.”

Ashu Goyal from Ahmedabad organises customised travel packages and was already flooded with requests, a month prior to V-Day. “An Italian couple plan to fly down all the way to Bhuj in Gujarat for a camel cart ride under the stars,” he says. He reveals that his clients also have gone to the extent of gifting their spouses their very own pani-puri stalls to savour its taste as when they feel like. “They are doing anything under the sun to make their soulmates go weak in the knees,” says Ashu.

Cleverly creative

And, if you thought it’s just a single day affair, think again. Harsh from Ahmedabad has been preparing for the day since weeks! He has organised a special treasure hunt for his girlfriend. “I have hidden clues at various places. The exercise is to remind her of all the memorable moments we have shared at our favourite restaurants, multiplexes, malls and other places in and around the city.”

Nikita from Mumbai wants to keep it simple and sweet. She will be presenting her boyfriend with every shade of red paint she can get her hands on. “He is an artist,” she says by way of explanation. As for Firdos Arjani, communications manager from Mumbai, what better way than to combine the colour red — signifying love — and the passion for technology he shares with his wife. “I have the perfect gift for her — a red 16 GB pen drive.”

Manu Khera, a Delhi-based businessman, is all set to take his wife on a trip to the Vaishno Devi shrine. “Infusing some spirituality with loves is ideal,” he says.

And, Ashish Mehra, a corporate communications executive from Delhi, has been shopping for lingerie in red to surprise his wife.

Bizarre buys

Love certainly finds expression in ways that range from the quirky to the bizarre. Mitesh, a student from Symbiosis College, Pune has a surprise gift for his ex-girlfriend. “I have sent her a bus ticket to a popular pilgrimage spot by post. She needs to repent for her sin of breaking up with me,” he says with a poker face. But Harish Iyer, a new media consultant in Mumbai, takes the cake (and the bakery) with his plans for V-Day, which involve advertising his single status on all possible social networking websites! “That’s my Valentine’s Day gift to myself,” he quips.

And for those of you who still believe in conventional celebrations, don’t despair for you are not alone.

Prajwal Miskin, product manager with a pharmaceutical company, who is currently dating gay icon, Manvendra Singh Gohil, says: “Nothing can beat the romance of candle light dinner, chocolates and flowers. I intend to surprise Manav by flying down to Surat on Valentine’s Day.”