Love is perhaps the only glimpse we are permitted of eternity, or so would we want in today’s times. The powerhouse of love, Valentine’s week is here and we are sure all you very much in love people out there have braced yourself for this romantic long week. Not just 14th February, this entire week is about declaration of love. Rose Day, Propose Day, Chocolate Day, Teddy Day, Promise Day, Hug Day, Kiss Day and then the big Valentine’s Day! This week is blazing love and roses!
And those single lonely souls (trust us, there are many out there) cringe at the very sight of anything remotely romantic during these days. Actually no, whether in love or not, we all secretly wish to have someone who’d dole out lovey dovey acts (and gifts!) for us this entire Valentine week!
This elusive and surreal feeling of love is something we all yearn to have as a constant in our lives. As children, love meant to us as something unconditional but somehow the concept shifted as we grew up. In today’s times, the very concept of relationships, that of committed relationships in particular, has become a bit skewed.
There’s no doubt that the stages of falling in love have remained more or less the same but the essence caught in each stage has escalated tangentially.
The Crush Stage
We all have had strings of crushes back in our school days- the cute, unattainable, non-refundable crushes! While for most of us 90’s kids (and the ones born before that period too), crush was a harmless infatuation that just meant thinking about that person and smiling to oneself, doing practically nothing about it. Catching a glimpse of one’s crush in the school corridor or the basketball court would make our day!
For today’s millenials, this phase has a different meaning. People have crushes from the virtual world. So addicted has today’s generation become to the digital world that they find it perfectly alright to find their love too online. Stalking their crushes, following the last check-ins and last seen time is what it has all become about.
The Puppy-love Phase
This was the innocent, harmless school romance. Exchanging stolen glances during classes or having stealthy brief conversations during lunch break was pretty much about it. Today’s school romance? It is everything but credulous. The lesser said the better.
Teenage Dating
Ninety percent of teens today at the age of thirteen have been on a date! 80’s -90’s kids knew only about their curriculum so well back then. The teens have taken to all the dating norms- going out to expensive restaurants, romantic getaways, flirting over texts and all sorts of social media platforms, and a more adult version of flirting at it!
For most of us from the innocent generation, teenage dating meant college romance and that too was a subtle one. Feelings were expressed through secret love-notes. Meeting over a cup of coffee meant college canteen. These millenials will never get the hidden charm of those coy phone conversations we had over those almost obsolete tring-tring landline phones, which mind you didn’t have the liberty of unlimited calling, the sneaky meetings and the unadulterated romance.
The Grown Up Romance
There’s hardly any quality time that people today can afford to spend with their partners. Even if they do have some time on their hands, they don’t quite get the meaning of quality time. The only perfect relationship they know is the one with their gadgets and all other relations they have revolve around this one virtual relation.
Earlier, fighting still meant talking to each other, not unfriending or ‘ghosting’ on social media. Love was expressed subtly though understanding, support and compassion. Not through whatsapp chats or Facebook status.
The very foundation of this generation’s relationship evaluation is misplaced and that’s where the issue lies. Our online personas dictate our relationships. There is a serious lapse in the effort we put in getting to actually understand people outside our virtual world. This entirely messes up our emotional fulcrum.
So this valentine’s day, do something new. Try the old school romance. Warm the cockles of your heart, slip under the love spell and lay bare your emotions to your loved one face to face and not behind your cellphones. Recapture that lost intimacy, pull some surprises- pen down your emotions, go for a beachside walk, talk just about you two, completely cut off from your virtual world. Your special moments are to be etched in memory, not portrayed on your social media.
Go ahead, plan something that has all your heart in it. And while you are thinking what you could do, check out our specially assembled valentine day collection. Gifting too is an art of love, after all!
