Gaon Or Shahar, It's Pyaar Ki Lehar

PATNA: "Julieeee, I love you...," is not the exclusive preserve of love guru Matuk Nath alone. For long before the married Patna professor took soot on his face and assault on his body in full media glare for his professed love for his student, Julie, his private crooning for her had become etched as a popular Bollywood number. Now also a popular ringtone on the cellphone network, the love for Julie has become synonymous with love across generations. Only the names change from Eena, Meena, Deeka to (you are my) Sonia. The festival expressing amour on February 14 each year is but a recent import to the land of Magadhavati, the famous courtesan of Pataliputra, and trans-Ganga to the land of Ambapali, the legendary courtesan of Vaishali. Bihar has since ancient times been a 'vihara' of love and renunciation. Valentine's Day may have become a symbol of urban middle class love expressed with cards and chocolates, strewn with roses in between and kisses on the sly. But you cannot take away from this western import its contribution to bring love out of the closet. From the stealing of glances to the close-ups in privy, love has metamorphosed into a market phenomenon spiralling the sales of bouquets to teddy bears. The bear hug remains a bug to blush, though. Yet, crushes have come out into the open as the mid-February market of cards, chocolates and flowers testifies. It has even sparked off imaginations to the glee of the market players. "Quite a few youngsters amble in to the shops for Valentine's Day gifts only to pretend being in love," a shopkeeper opined. Even those without a love anchor have helped the Valentine market grow even in the large and wide space of the mobile telephony and the internet. This discreet space of www.love is in fact much more happening with the stag sharing of naughty SMSes, jokes and clips to the exchange of mooches and smooches amongst otherwise shy couples. But lest you thought that such open expressions of love are only just city-centric, just take a tour of the countryside. Villages are no longer islands of isolation in this era of globalisation. Migrant labourers returning from Delhi, Mumbai or Punjab come back just not only with visions of cable TV. They replicate what they see in the city as this correspondent found with rustic couples snatching private moments in paddy and sugarcane fields in the remote Gandak diara of Champaran, obliterating the distance from Mumbai's Marine Drive and Delhi's Lodhi Gardens and these farmlands in the Bihar hinterland. So, processions denouncing Valentine's Day may come and go but love is gonna stay. Urban or rural, Bhallentine Baba has become 'pyaar' ka persona. To express your love, you just need a toffee worth 50 paise.