The youth of Coimbatore are not keen to celebrate Valentine’s Day publicly this year and many star category hotels have also not come up with special programmes for fearing of earning the wrath of those who protest against such celebrations.
A large section of college students, who fear protests by some organisations, told Deccan Chronicle that they would go to either Chennai or Bengaluru for V-Day celebrations.
“There’s absolutely no point in celebrating a day like February 14 in Coimbatore as there is no privacy for lovers. Moreover, they are only subjected to ridicule and humiliation besides rude behaviour by the public,” said Raghu Siddarth, a student of PSG Tech.
“It’s much better to spend the day at a friend’s house or go out of town to Chennai,” said Siddarth.
“There’s nothing happening to even acknowledge the day. Blame it on the conservative nature of the residents here or maybe the coffee shops and pubs here feel it won’t work out here,” said Shasvathi Siva, a college student.
“All of us just plan to take off on that day, go on a fun road trip and hit Bengaluru — a place where we can actually have fun on the most romantic day of the year,” said Siva.
On Saturday, youth wing members of the Hindu Makkal Katchi (HMK), led by Shanmugavadivel, the state youth wing vice-president, staged a demonstration at VOC Park seeking a ban on Valentine’s Day celebrations, which they said was a cultural degradation.
The cadres also burnt greeting cards to protest against V-Day. They said that they would force lovers to marry if they are seen celebrating Valentine’s Day in the city.
However, the Aruntamizhar Peravai state organiser Elavenil has said that they would distribute sweets to lovers on Valentine’s Day. He said the Peravai cadres would visit areas where lovers gather for celebrations.
“Only conservationists prevent lovers from celebrating Valentine’s Day,” he said.
Celebrations cut short this V-Day
The fun and frolic associated with the Valentine’s Day celebrations for youngsters in city is most likely to be missing this year, as the star hotels seemed to be shunning such a fete in view of possible threats from some outfits.
From hotels to local coffee shops, no one will be entertaining Valentines Day this year, and as for youngsters, its nothing but a cry that will be left unheard.
General manager of Le Meridien hotel here, Sanjay Gupta, when asked about their plans for this special evening, said, “Absolutely nothing! With all recent ruckus happening around town and recent threats to sabotage Valentines day, we decided to put the celebrations on a hold.”
“We will only be having a special candle lit dinner on February 14. Of course, there will be a special menu put together just for the occasion,” he remarked.
Even the local greeting cards and coffee shops will not be entertaining their customers with any special offers or promotional activities for them.
“We don’t have anything special offers for this Valentines day. People are purchasing gifts for the occasion, gifts like soft dolls that are selling very well,” said a staff at a greeting card shop on the Cross Cut Road. Irked by the restrictions over and a celebration-dry V-Day, a youngster lamented that though the city was one of the most forward cities down south this is really disappointing. things like this happen.
“The real meaning of Valentine’s day is concocted and twisted. People here have the wrong notion of celebrations and they seek a ban on the celebrations. They should learn clearly what the day is all about,” he said.
Even prominent coffee shops will not have any special offers for anyone, but they would just be baking heart shaped cakes as a special for this Valentine Day.
