I didn't know how important Valentine's Day was until my last years of college, when posters at every stationery store shoved that message down my throat. This is when stores selling greeting cards still existed, obviously, at a time when we didn't have Amazon and people still visited bookstores. I thought about buying Valentine's Day cards, too, not because I had anyone to give them to, but because we were all made to feel as if it was something that couldn't be avoided.

That fear of missing out has only become worse from that point on. It's hard to forget about Valentine's Day even if one wants to, because everyone from the building association to one's friendly paanwallah has become part of the act. There are contests, special offers, obnoxious pink hearts on walls that couldn't possibly be uglier, and a cloying stickiness that hovers over every couple as they pretend to be more in love for 24 hours than they really are.