Featured in this month's issue of Ideal home and garden is our table setting for valentine.
February is the month declared by the world as the month of love!
Ask us Indians - we have celebrated it for generations, even documented it and sold million copies of short, extended, visuals, quick reads and even tips with our universal love book - Kama Sutra.
With our population burst we are a living proof!
Hey we still love the idea of valentine.
Does age matter?
No.
And gender?
absolutely not!
What this month does is to help us reminisce love and the idea of love.
Frankly for me it's the idea of love and its expression that gets me going.
So when I was asked to do a table styling for Ideal home and Garden, I jumped!
Forgetting my age,not my journey.
I went back to the little girl in college in Bombay....yes its Mumbai now!
It was valentine.
The three of us after our college hours, as was the routine walked out of our gates of Sophia down the road towards Amarsons in Breach candy.
I was addicted to the chocolate donuts, I needed my fix.
Everywhere there were hearts, red roses, young girls all dressed to the hilt with their beau.
The three of us from out of town living in the hostel in a convent with large gates and the nuns keeping a close watch on us, had little chance of meeting any suitable boy.
While we laughed at our own misery and the choices our parents made in sending us to the exciting world of Mumbai, only to lock us up behind the gates of Sophia......a young boy interrupted us.
"Excuse me"
Yes?
The other two asked,while my mouth was full of dripping hot chocolate donut.
"please may I give this rose to you?"
He was looking directly at me!
You can imagine my shock and embarrassment. Mouthful of donut and sticky hands.
I accepted the rose and fumbled with a faint thankyou, while my cheeks turned red on my dusky complexion.
Oh! that thrill. Damn.
It was short and sweet. I didn't get his name, he didn't ask mine.
This was well before the cell phone days.
There were gates that locked us in every evening at sharp eight. Our sisters, the nuns always kept a close eye on each one of us.
But did it matter to me....nah!
I had my valentine rose.
Fast forward I would imagine that rose did good.
A year later, the table was set, the flowers were many....this time pink. little notes, few promises and a full bottle of wine to be consumed......in a dreamy garden.
And then of course the music!
Thank you Ideal home and garden for taking me back in time.
Happy Valentine!
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