Love is definitely in the air this month. With Valentine’s Day just a few hours away, couples and singles are getting ready to celebrate the day in their own way. While some of the couples have made grand reservations for a romantic meal, some singles are gearing up to hit some pubs where they are celebrating singlehood or staying at home and binge watching sitcoms on television or Netflix. Either way, everyone has made some sort of plans to keep themselves busy tomorrow.
If you’re someone who spends a lot of time on the internet, you might have been overwhelmed with the number of roses, chocolates and other gifting options that are being thrown your way. While showering your loved ones with chocolates and roses has always been a classic way to celebrate the day of love, this year, some Bengalureans are turning it up a notch and designing their own wacky way to spend the day.
Rupesh, a consultant, is happily married to Sabitha, a HR professional. It’s been two months since their marriage and Rupesh wants to do something different; so instead of giving her the usual gifts, he’s gifting a cheese platter! He explains, “We’re not someone who really believe in the day and want to celebrate it as such. So we’re not even waiting till the actual day to do something fun. When I was thinking of doing something different, a friend suggested that I present her with a platter of cheese from Foodhall instead of chocolates and roses, because that’s what she loves. So I’m planning to start the day early, go out for a nice lunch and then present her with a beautiful assortment of cheese which I’m sure she’s going to love.”
Handmade gifts are also one of the popular gifting items that couples love. But the wacky part of what makes a content writer, Divya Mithra’s gift is her concept of ‘Open when...’ letters. These are situational letters where one opens them during certain circumstances like ‘open when you’re happy’, ‘open when you miss me’ and so on.
“I wanted to make something nice for my man so I made these. It took about two weeks to make them and I’m proud of the way it’s turned out. It’s in a book format so that whenever he wants, he can easily open it. One of my favourites that’s designed is ‘open when you are upset’ , which has a few packets of teas (he loves tea) that are extremely soothing. There’s also one that says ‘open when you need to know how much I love you’ which has two hands stretching out. I’m hoping that he will be blown away because I put in a lot of time and hard work into this,” says Divya. But for those who don’t have that creative juice in them to make something personalised, Neha Patil is there to the rescue.
The creative director of ‘Tile Italia Pebbles’ says that one can approach her if they want fine pebbles that have a customised message on them. She says, “We do everything from engraving to painting to mosaic work on the pebbles. We’ve had people come to us asking for messages to be done on them. Since it is the Valentine’s season, we’ve done some mosaic work that’s heart-shaped. We’ve got some great responses for it as well.”
With almost everyone trying something new this year to keep their love young and strong, the fitness centre ‘The Hood’ is also trying something innovative to add to this. Putting the notion of true love to test, directors and husband-wife duo Abhinav Shankar and Hema are calling out to all the couples to join the ‘Run with Wife’ event at Cubbon Park on Sunday. Explaining the concept, they say, “It’s actually a professional sport in Finland where the husband carries his wife. We wanted to do something similar since we’re also a health club.” The run is going to start at 6.30 am where the couple have to run for four km and for the remaining 1 km, one has to carry the other till the finish line. Before the run, the trainers are going to be giving the runners a quick class on the three types of carrying that one can try — a fireman’s carry, piggy-back and single shoulder carry.
Abhinav says, “Although there’s going to be a prize for the first one to finish the race and for the most entertaining couple, it’s not just about winning. We want to show one that this is very helpful in a real life situation. With the crazy traffic that we have in the City, carrying a person to the hospital seems more reasonable than an ambulance sometimes. So this is a way to open one’s mind to it and a great way to bond with your partner as well.” However, couples Justin and Stacey say, “We keep hearing our friends make huge plans for Valentine’s Day and it’s great. But we just want to chill at home, maybe go for a movie and just spend the day together. It’s the little things that count and that’s the whole point of it after all.”
Published 12 February 2016, 15:51 IST