Enjoy a Flirty Valentine's Day With Lots of Love and Loads of Gifts

It's again that time of the year when girls and boys are busy hunting for the best of flowers, candies and chocolates for their Valentines. It's Valentine's Day. Most cities around the world are draped in red and the mood of love is floating in the air. Men and women are waiting to steal some romantic moments with the love of their life on V-day.

Celebrating Life

Restaurants and hotels are dishing out innovative foods for couples and gifts shops have come up with all unique gifting items for the love birds. But Valentine's Day celebration has moved beyond those chocolates, cards and flowers. In the new scenario, it's a win-win situation for both the market and the valentines. Now, men and women have more options of gift items to choose from. Companies have come up with special deals for Valentine's Day. Even banks are not far behind in the race of cashing in on the Day of Love.

Valentine's Day Gift Market

In India, as part of Valentine's Day celebrations, HDFC Bank has come up with Consumer Durable Loan. With online shopping making a buzz these days, people have a plethora of deals to pick from. To help you celebrate V-day in style, these sites have special Valentine wardrobe. An eye over these dresses also gives you an idea of different ways to spend your time together. You can plan a flirty evening or a party all night or a romantic lunch. Thus, without spending time in the market, people can get suitable dresses to set the Valentine's mood at the click of a button.

In today's tech world, there are amazing gifting ideas and one should not forget the offers along with them. We have kindle devices and tablets and variety of smart phones to select from. Be it Nokia or Apple or T-Mobile or Google, all have enticing and exciting offers.

But the list of ideas does not end here. Amazon.com has a section devoted to Valentine's Day where it lists sections for gift ideas - electronics, beauty products, jewellery, fashion accessories, romantic books and movies, kitchen and dining, watches, decor, personal care appliances, toys and games, entertainment and lifestyle. Though chocolates and flowers form the standard gifting ideas, these days, men and women also expect something more than the routine.

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A survey by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham), India, says that gift sales in Valentine's Day week is expected to touch Rs 18,000 crore (USD 2886465684), while for last year the figure stood at Rs 15,000 crore.

But certain quarters also complain that this gifting culture has transformed love into a commodity and has made it materialistic where the intensity of love is measured in terms of gifts. And somewhere in this process, the true essence and feeling of love is being lost.

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Valentine's Day Special Week

V-Day is celebrated throughout the week. February 7 is celebrated as Rose Day, February 8 is Propose Day, February 9 is Chocolate Day, February 10 is Teddy Day, February 11 is Promise Day, February 12 is Hug Day and February 13 is celebrated as Kiss Day. So the gift market has enough reasons to dole out the best of offers for the week-long celebration. To help you get absorbed in that mushy feeling, websites have compiled different ideas of celebration. They have also put together love quotes for you that will make your hearts feel closer to each other.

Valentine's Day Apps

To make the V-Day more romantic, now apps are there to assist you. These apps can help one organise quick dinner reservations and order fresh flowers to the doorstep of your beloved. There are apps like Appflute and DreamRing. Code Parable is an app for iPhone and it stores details of your lover's favourite things, important dates and anniversaries and personal traits, such as size of clothes and shoes.

Indian Rose Market

Another section which is witnessing brighter days due to Valentine's Day, is Indian rose export. According to a leading Indian daily, the Indian Society of Floriculture Professionals has said the total exports from western and southern India around Valentine's Day will reach up to 20 million flowers and this would bring in around Rs 40 crore. Indian roses are exported mainly to European cities such as Amsterdam and London, Gulf countries, Singapore, Australia, Italy, Greece, Sweden and New Zealand. In India, with price of roses costing a bomb, rose sellers also make a lot of profit during V-Day. As per a BBC report, as much as half of the 6 lakh roses to be sold on February 14 in New Zealand will come from India and Colombia.

The Unhappy Lot

But all are not happy with the Valentine's Day celebrations going viral in India. According to them, V-day is not a part of our Indian tradition and somewhere it is eroding our own culture. Groups such as Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad have sent out warnings to youths to refrain from V-Day celebrations arguing that it does not pertain to "Indian values".

Even in past years, these outfits had gone all out to vandalise and burn greeting card shops and stalk young couples who were seen together in public on V-Day. According to reports, they have said that this year they may even use lathis (sticks) to teach a lesson to Indian youths about Indian values.

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart - Helen Keller

Source-Medindia