Celebrating Love Writing Contest...

This is the time of the year, when love is in the air. Ooops, now I would be under the radar of the various groups who have taken upon themselves the burden of upholding Indian 'tradition' and 'cultural values', for the starting statement of the post or am I safe?

Fine let us get to the main point and like the fringe elements, not waste our time, creating issues out of non-issues. I also feel that participating in this fun-filled event won't even attract an iota of disgrace or generate a feeling of shame, which few young ladies in Mangalore faced. The young ladies suffered the ignominy of being beaten, trashed, and molested by a band of preservers of Indian values, for the crime they committed of visiting a pub.

Since what I am going to tell you involves fiddling with your writing implements, scrambling words, so I guess both you and me are safe.

Post liberalization in 1990's, along with the economic revolution that was witnessed in India, gave birth to class of neo-rich, a clan that traveled to foreign lands with greater frequency for better opportunities in all spheres of life and business assignments. Did this tribe, import the culture of fancy dinners, exchange of greetings cards, offering gifts, etc to mark the romantic moments in one's life? Is V-Day another decadent influence of the West, because our parents and grand parents never celebrated this day? We all know that our parents cared for each other and so did our grand parents, but they didn't earmark a separate day to express their love and caring. Was our society conservative then and now it is more open and broad-minded and hence this transformation. Is it as simple as this or a bucketful of linkages have to be coupled to provide some convincing views?

See, slowly the momentum is gathering. So all you have to do is use your fresh and vibrant words to express your views, of course not just on what I broached about above, but on any topic celebrating love in all its shades. Desicritics is conducting a Valentine's Day Contest - Celebrating Love writing contest. Anyone and everyone can participate in this contest, with a simple condition that all the posts should be about or relate to love in its many forms. More details here.

You don't have to be a Robert Grant or a Heidelberg or a Shakespeare to participate, just spin your thoughts, sew your words deftly and weave your own story or sonnet. Also your write-up can be sentimental or funny, fiction or a true story, a memoir or a photo-essay - the choice is completely yours. For instance, Deepti goes down the memory lane when she was in her early teens to tell the Love Remembered between her grandpa and grandma.

Romance and Love cause all of us to get teary eyed. Some stories have tragic endings and some make us wish that we would also experience the highs of love.

Just scribble, you know why? Because, simple words make the maximum impact.

Hasratien dil me dabane se kya haasil hoga
Apne hoth hila kar to dekho
Khamoshi se kab hoti hai khwahishein poori
Dil ki baat bata kar to dekho
Jo hai dil mei use kar do bayaan
Khud ko ek baar jata kar to dekho




I intentionally didn't do the translation because it kills the flavor and piquancy of the message.

'Yes you can', says RC. 'It's simple. Just pick up your pen and .....'



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