Catch 22: Waiting for my V-Day rose

Roses, roses everywhere not a single one for me. I have been craving for a dedicated red rose but none has given one to me. Well, before anyone starts showering sympathy on me for not having received a single rose till date, let me first clarify that I am talking about a Valentine’s Day rose here. Two decades and two years have passed, precisely 22 Valentine’s Days have gone by since I first stepped on this mighty world (how silly I am, revealed my age for it!), but I am yet to receive a red rose on this celebrated day of love.

“So you mean you never had a boyfriend in your life?” asked a colleague of mine. "Oh! you never have got a Valentine’s rose as well," he taunted.

“Of course not”, was my reply.

"Oh lady, don’t make me confused," he said.

"I am not making you confused," I murmured.

“What? What did you say right now?” asked he.

"What do you mean? You never had a boyfriend or never got a rose," he shot.

With a half-hearted smile, I told him that I have no intention to make him confused rather I wanted him to know that I have got end number of bouquets, countless dark chocolates, fancy dresses, golden rings, silver chains, watches, cakes and what not; got all of these either on my birthday or New Year or Eid or Diwali or Holi and so on and so forth but unfortunately not on Valentine’s Day.

“Hmmm…so sad”, he consoled me which sounded more of a taunt to me.

"Listen dude, don’t pity me," I told him.

Not getting a red rose or for that matter any other gifts on Valentine’s Day doesn’t necessarily mean that I have had or have no boyfriend(s). On the contrary, I have had enough of them, I told him with my chin up.

Scratching his head, he asked if you had so many BFs than how come you never received any gifts on Valentine’s Day for 22 long years.

"Dude, I am not discussing gifts here, only roses that too red one I am talking about," I told him.

I remember when I was in VIII standard, one of my close buddies came near my house and blushingly gifted me a packet of Chinese chewing gum that day.

I asked him, “Yaar, what’s the occasion, why this gift?”

Too shy to say anything, he just wished me Happy Valentine’s Day and sped away on his TVS Scooty.

Yes, it was my first Valentine’s Day gift ever but sans that red rose. Many came and went(talking about BFs here), however, I never got a red rose till today.

Perhaps it’s because every V-Day was always an off-season of love for me, either I had just broke up with a guy or had a major fight in and around the day. And I am denied that red rose every single time.

“Oh…poor you,” my colleague solaced me. His solace forced me to think that I am really poor and I couldn’t receive any red rose till now. If I am that unlucky that in this 22 years of my existence I couldn’t deserve a 10-rupee rose, yes the red one. Ammm …he’s right, I am poor then.

By the way, let me admit that the imported chewing gum, yes the Chinese one, gifted by that buddy of mine is the only V-Day gift I received so far; though I have got many gifts on various occasions, getting gifts on a special day like V-Day helps love bloom like anything, I heard someone saying it.

Although I believe that Valentine’s Day is not the only day to express love to one another, yet I feel celebrating love on a designated day adds spice to lovers’ life, one feels very special (yes, I felt excited and special to have got that packet of Chinese gum).

Jinx seems vowed not to end this time too, on this Valentine’s Day I am working in the office with no rose, I mean red rose on my way. It seems I am not waiting for my V-Day rose from a true lover but waiting for *Godot. I wish my Godot soon arrives.

(*Godot is a character in Samuel Beckett’s novel ‘Waiting for Godot’ in which two protagonists wait endlessly in vain for Godot to arrive.)