Valentine’s Day pays tribute to love. Though marking this day in Nepal has not been very long, it has been quite popular among young people. The fest symbolises true love.

Love is a charismatic emotion. There is no such thing as ‘love’. Love is an abstraction, perhaps an alien being, though nobody has ever seen this Goddess. In reality, there only exists ‘the act of loving’.

To love is a productive activity. It implies caring, knowing, responding, affirming, and enjoying: the person, the tree, the painting, or the idea. It means bringing to life, increasing his/her/its aliveness. It is a process — self-renewing and self-increasing. When love is experienced in the mode of having, it implies confining, imprisoning, controlling the object one loves. It is strangling, deadening, suffocating, killing, and not life-giving.

David Viscott says: “To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.” He means that love cannot be one-sided. Love means the bonding of two hearts. In Alan Watt’s words: “Never pretend love, which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.” In fact, he is right to say that love does not go by our commands. Pretension in love speaks of unfaithful and untrue love that can break up any time. How you define love depends on your interpretation and no interpretation is final.

Valentine’s Day brings joy to lovebirds beginning a novel path of living a lovely life. It is the sunshine of brighter days ahead. The lovebirds make many promises to remain one forever. Some people misinterpret the significance of Valentine’s Day. This is in fact an embarrassment of love. The so-called lovers make fake promises and propose on Valentine’s Day. We should shake off such ill thoughts and make this day a pure and perfect one paying respect and tribute to love.

The Valentine’s Day is not meant for forcible proposal of love. This is the day to express and accept love. To love is not a crime; to deceive somebody in love is.

Let’s celebrate Valentine’s Day as a token of genuine love. Express your love and make love an inseparable relation. Indeed, love is life. Life is not complete without the touch of love. So Happy Valentine’s Day!