Though in the European societies, the phenomenon of coquetry is couple of centuries old, but it has caught the fancy of developing countries in recent times only. No wonder, Victorian and earlier poets and authors in England have written a fair deal over this art.
Like any other faculty, a person is born with the ability to flirt but one can always hone it for its furtherance. Success rate is always dependant upon the ease with which one handles the job. Flirting is an art dependant more on the mind. Heart is banished or kept aloof in the whole affair. To flirt is to flaunt your wit with flair. The protagonist has to flit from one charming object to another, without leaving any trail of emotions. Memories are welcome but of purely dispassionate nature. The involvement of the subject and object of flirting can be compared to that of a bird with its tree top perch. But there is no greater hoax than rules or hints being taunted by some, to develop this art. They are only meant to fool the gullible. It is all hogwash. Despite all kinds of claims, flirting is an attitude a person wears on his sleeves.
There are only two kinds of people in the world -those who can flirt and those who cannot. No end of training can make person do a job that he is not meant for. Second, for those who can flirt it remains an indispensable activity from right from childhood to the graveyard. Even the senile decay is no impediment. Depending upon culture to culture, there are ways to initialise this activity. In the Indian context a compliment, a wink, a touch, a well-timed stare remain the greatest weapons. The most formidable tool however is the tongue. It is used to impress, motivate and instigate.
In modern times of ‘instant mantra”, hardly does anyone have time to play lovebirds in the gardens or indulge in long and romantic melodramas. For a society sandwiched between passions and performance, flirting acts as a great a stress buster. As for as the question, of who is a greater flirt -man or woman is concerned, it remains unanswered and perhaps shall remain so for eternity, claims and counter claims notwithstanding.
Now we come to the presiding deity of the most popular festival of the Generation –X worldwide. The Valentine’s Day is dedicated to the St. Valentine, one of the most popular saints of the Rome- Christian history. It all started with the Emperor Claudius, who had banned marriages in his state because he believed that an army of the bachelors was more formidable. But Valentine continued to arrange marriages on the sly. His activity came to the notice of the authorities and he was caught and executed. But before he died, he had fallen in love with the daughter of the prison guard. On the way to gallows, he had sent a short and terse message to his beloved-signed ‘From Your Valentine’.
In the fifth century A.D. Emperor Gelasius, recognized the sacrifice of Valentine and set aside February 14th as St. Valentine’s Day. This incidentally was a day when there is a dramatic change in the weather of the Northern Hemisphere, from winter to spring. It is the time when birds choose their mates. Slowly this festival became associated with the pagan ritual of indulging in promiscuous sexual activity through a system of lottery. Men used to choose their sexual partners through a system of lottery. But as the times changed ‘The Church’ and the public decided to correct this moral depravity. The names of maidens in the lottery were replaced by the names of patron saints and people were asked to emulate the good deeds of the saint chosen for the year.
But the present day celebrations of the Valentine’s Day are essentially a result of the rapid commercialisation and communication revolution in the past century. Today Valentine’s Day, celebrations have become a multi-billion dollar industry. With the advent of Internet, the commercial stakes have risen manifold. No doubt, it warms up quite a large number of coffers besides warming up some hearts too. For those left out there is always a chance next year.
