By Hitoishi Chakma
Conspiring is probably one of the oldest forms of pastimes that are still going strong. Everyone conspires about everything these days as people must keep their brains working somehow. You know the old saying, 'An idle brain is the devil's workshop'. And now that conspirers have run out of people to assassinate and things to conspire against, they have put their attention to conspiring to make Valentine's Day something that it is not!
Do NOT listen to whoever that says that Valentine's Day is crappy, mushy or useless. It is not the lovebirds' fault that there exists a Lonely Hearts Club! They just want to love and spread the message of love … to their paramours. And now some lunatics are busy spreading that we should not celebrate V'day only with our respective girlfriends and boyfriends but with our whole family. Okay that is just weirdly embarrassing.
First of all, has not each member of the family got a day to themselves? There is the Father's Day, Mother's Day and I'm pretty sure if we look for it we will even be able to find a Brother's day and a Sister's day. In fact fifteen minutes every night at the dinner table actually makes the whole family stay together, huddled around a table for four whole days within a year and I have not even counted the eight hours we sleep huddled in the same bed (okay I do not know about you guys, but we are poor). So why would we need to show our love to them on Valentine's Day? The day is absurdly expensive the way it is and I am afraid if the whole family gets included in it, entire nations will have to go and file for bankruptcy in a single day.
It is just weird that people get jealous when they see someone happy. It is ingrained in humans to be jealous and to decide that they do not like the thing that made them jealous.
Anyway love birds from across the world have to wait a whole year for V'day, just to exchange maybe a few flying kisses, some cards and a pack of candies, shaped not really like the heart but like something that for some absurd reason we know to be a heart. On this day they see the sparkle in the eyes of that special someone, smell the scent of that expensive perfume and go on a spending frenzy. If it makes them happy it is our duty to let them be.
By Anika Tabassum
There are pros and cons to being single on Valentine's Day. On the negative side, all the hype around you gets to you and you wonder what it is about; your friends simply refuse to believe that you are single. On the positive side, though, you began to appreciate all the love surrounding you more. You know, more than the extremely overrated and simplified as the-only-form-of-love kind of love between a boy and a girl.
The room zooms into view and you notice your mother. Do you remember when she has been the happiest? The chances are that the occasion arose when you accomplished something, and not some success of her own. She lends you a shoulder when you need it most, and never betrays your deepest secrets and darkest fears. Your father, who, regardless of the fact that you are not a child anymore, silently conspires to spoil you every now and then with little gifts. Gifts that you treasure so much you would never let anyone else know. Your brother who bought you an expensive MP3 player with his first salary instead of buying something for himself. Remember them?
Remember the teachers? There's the one who gave you candies when you were crying for your mother on the first day of school, there's the teacher who you hated for the extra workload but realized after the exam that you would be lost had it not been for her lessons, and there's the one who stands up for you when you are being mistreated.
The smallest acts of love evoke the deepest feelings. Friendship is one of those. Remember the day in the library when you instinctively sat in one of those comfy seats but later found out that it was actually occupied by someone else? That person told you she was sitting there, you got up, and then she completely surprised you by dragging another exactly same chair across the room so that you can sit on it. You became friends in a week. There's the friend who shares her food generously with you despite the fact that it's her favourite.
There are the people that work for you and the kids of the charity organization you visited. There are the thousands of people in your country who live through the lowest of lows and are yet discovered to be the most content people in the world.
I could go on infinitely. There are many people out there who love you in some form or the other but just don't show it around. They might need a little of their share of love, because come what may, that is what we all thirst for. Love in its quintessential form, sublime and pure; love reciprocated and shared. So instead of trying to light up your life this February, light up the Valentines of others. Show them you appreciate them. This Valentine's Day will then be memorable in a different way- and that's a promise.
The Gift
The campus was littered with confetti, paper hearts, faded flowers crushed underfoot, and mushy couples. All eyes were on the package in my hand, wondering who the lucky valentine would be. She spotted me and broke into a grin, ending the suspense. Who needs a guy when your gal pal is the one that makes your day?
By Sabrina F Ahmad
Picture by Fairooze Waziha, Age 12
