Sweet ‘n’ sour Valentine's Day

Olive trees play cupid between India, Pak
Srinagar: For a change, Olive plants will play cupid on borders and spread the fragrance of love and friendship between India and Pakistan. Thanks to the peace contingent led by Darakhshan Andrabi, noted poet and president of Socialist Democratic Party, who used the occasion to plant olive saplings on Indo-Pak international border at Abdullah post in RS Pora Sector Jammu to send across the message of love and brotherhood. “Olive is the symbol of love and spiritual bond. That is why we chose to plant the saplings on borders. We hope these plants will act as our representatives of love and friendship for our neighbours. Inshallah, they will bloom into big emitters of goodwill and reach out to the people in Pakistan,” Andrabi said.

Martyr’s Valentine’s Day
Chennai: Lovers in Chennai were in for a shock with the police themselves turning them away from public places like Mariana and Basant Nagar beaches, the preferred meeting points. “Youngsters who bunked classes and came in large numbers to the beach were turned away by the police,” said Marshal John (name changed), one of the hundreds of disappointed youth forced to return home. Elsewhere in Tamil Nadu, the Hindutva Brigade observed the day as Martyr’s Day owing to an act of terrorism by Al Umma in 1998’s Valentine’s Day which claimed 50 lives in Coimbatore.

Spurned lover attacks girl with blade
Kolkata: A spurned lover here tried to permanently scar his former girlfriend’s face with a blade but the victim escaped with a slashed arm. Another person was also injured while trying to save the girl. Twenty-eight-year-old Ranjit Barik attacked his 19-year-old former girlfriend when she was climbing into an auto rickshaw at the crossing of Eastern Metropolitan Bypass and Prince Anwar Shah Road in South Kolkata, police said.

40% single Indians looking for love: Survey
New Delhi: Four in ten single women and men in India think that finding someone to fall in love with will bring them the greatest joy, a global survey said. The survey, by market research company Ipsos, found married Indians —more than singles —look to their sex lives for happiness. Having a good sex life provides the greatest happiness to 44% of married Indians, whereas the figure is 34% for singles.

Cupid reigns celebrations in Hyderabad
Hyderabad: Unfazed by the antics of saffron outfits, the cupid-struck couples here celebrated the Valentine’s Day with warmth and zeal. The couples celebrated the day by exchanging roses, gifts and also thronged cinema halls, and other popular hangouts. “What better way to express love by exchanging flowers,” Kishore, a corporate employee, said.

Meanwhile, activists of Bajrang Dal held protests at places like Bowenpally and Paradise here and elsewhere in the state. “We are not against love. We are against immoral acts and aping the foreign culture,” Bajrang Dal’s city president Murari said. He claimed marriages were performed for some couples at a temple in Hayat Nagar and some other couples at Moinabad here.