{"id":1868,"date":"2013-02-14T07:57:46","date_gmt":"2013-02-14T12:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/?p=1868"},"modified":"2013-02-14T07:59:16","modified_gmt":"2013-02-14T12:59:16","slug":"the-gujarati-origins-of-valentines-day-velan-time-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2013\/02\/the-gujarati-origins-of-valentines-day-velan-time-day.html","title":{"rendered":"The Gujarati origins of Valentine’s day: Velan-time Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Valentine’s Day today, and also as it happens my own birthday, so I thought I’d share a classic Internet myth for both amusement and a not-so-subtle warning, which given the state of gender relations in India recently might also serve as some inspiration \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Real History of Valentine\u2019s Day<\/strong> <\/p>\n

In spite of what you have been told by everyone, the truth is that Valentine\u2019s Day originated hundreds of years ago, in India, and to top it all, in the state of Gujarat !!!<\/p>\n

It is a well known fact that Gujarati men mistreat and disrespect their wives. One fine day, it happened to be the 14th day of February, one brave woman, having had enough \u201ctorture\u201d by her husband, finally chose to rebel by beating him up with a Velan (rolling pin to make chapattis). Yes… the same Velan which she used daily, to make chapattis for him… only this time, instead of the dough, it was the husband who was flattened.<\/p>\n

This was a momentous occasion for all Gujarati women and a revolt soon spread, like wild fire, with thousands of housewives beating up their husbands with the Velan. There was an outburst of moaning “chapatti-ed” husbands all over Anand and Amdavad.<\/p>\n

The Gujarati men-folk quickly learnt their lesson and started to behave more respectfully with their wives.<\/p>\n

Thereafter, on 14th February every year, the womenfolk of Gujarat would beat up their husbands, to commemorate that eventful day \u2013 the wives having the satisfaction of beating up their husbands with the Velan and the men having the supreme joy of submitting to the will of the women they loved.<\/p>\n

Soon the Gujarati men realized that in order to avoid this ordeal they needed to present gifts to their wives… they brought flowers and sweets. This is how the tradition of “Velan time” began.<\/p>\n

As Gujarat fell under the influence of Western culture, the ritual soon spread to Britain and many other Western countries, specifically, the catch words “Velan time” !!! In course of time, their foreign tongues, this became anglicized to “Velantime” and then to “Valentine”.<\/p>\n

And thereafter, 14th of February, came to be known as Valentine\u2019s Day and now you know the true story of Valentine\u2019s day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In related news, there’s a Valen-timely story in the New York Times<\/a> about kissing making a comeback in India:<\/p>\n

A pivotal screen kiss reflected the changing romantic landscape here. Kissing scenes were banned by Indian film censors until the 1990s, and Shah Rukh Khan, a Bollywood heartthrob who is one of the world\u2019s biggest movie stars, has been teasing Indian audiences in dozens of films since then by bringing his lips achingly close to those of his beautiful co-stars. But his lips never touched any of theirs until he kissed the Bollywood bombshell Katrina Kaif in \u201cJab Tak Hai Jaan,\u201d which was released in December 2012.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The subtext to both these stories, one silly and the other somewhat less so, is that gender relations in India still are, to put it mildly, a problem. But hopefully, one that will solve itself in time. If the next generation of Indian men aren’t moved by the recent rape tragedies to enforce and self-police a change in how Indian women are treated, there’s always the Velan solution. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s Valentine’s Day today, and also as it happens my own birthday, so I thought I’d share a classic Internet myth for both amusement and a not-so-subtle warning, which given the state of gender relations in India recently might also serve as some inspiration \ud83d\ude42 The Real History of Valentine\u2019s Day In spite of what…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[238,230,138,389,385,34],"class_list":["post-1868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dour-mullah","tag-demographics","tag-domestic-violence","tag-india","tag-rape","tag-valentines-day","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Gujarati origins of Valentine's day: Velan-time Day - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Gujarati origins of Valentine's day: Velan-time Day - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It’s Valentine’s Day today, and also as it happens my own birthday, so I thought I’d share a classic Internet myth for both amusement and a not-so-subtle warning, which given the state of gender relations in India recently might also serve as some inspiration \ud83d\ude42 The Real History of Valentine\u2019s Day In spite of what…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2013\/02\/the-gujarati-origins-of-valentines-day-velan-time-day.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-02-14T12:57:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-02-14T12:59:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/files\/2013\/02\/velan-rolling-pin-250x250.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aziz Poonawalla\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Gujarati origins of Valentine's day: Velan-time Day - City of Brass","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Gujarati origins of Valentine's day: Velan-time Day - City of Brass","og_description":"It’s Valentine’s Day today, and also as it happens my own birthday, so I thought I’d share a classic Internet myth for both amusement and a not-so-subtle warning, which given the state of gender relations in India recently might also serve as some inspiration \ud83d\ude42 The Real History of Valentine\u2019s Day In spite of what…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2013\/02\/the-gujarati-origins-of-valentines-day-velan-time-day.html","og_site_name":"City of Brass","article_published_time":"2013-02-14T12:57:46+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-02-14T12:59:16+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/files\/2013\/02\/velan-rolling-pin-250x250.jpg"}],"author":"Aziz Poonawalla","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2013\/02\/the-gujarati-origins-of-valentines-day-velan-time-day.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2013\/02\/the-gujarati-origins-of-valentines-day-velan-time-day.html","name":"The Gujarati origins of Valentine's day: Velan-time Day - City of Brass","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2013\/02\/the-gujarati-origins-of-valentines-day-velan-time-day.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2013\/02\/the-gujarati-origins-of-valentines-day-velan-time-day.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/files\/2013\/02\/velan-rolling-pin-250x250.jpg","datePublished":"2013-02-14T12:57:46+00:00","dateModified":"2013-02-14T12:59:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2013\/02\/the-gujarati-origins-of-valentines-day-velan-time-day.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2013\/02\/the-gujarati-origins-of-valentines-day-velan-time-day.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2013\/02\/the-gujarati-origins-of-valentines-day-velan-time-day.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/files\/2013\/02\/velan-rolling-pin-250x250.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/files\/2013\/02\/velan-rolling-pin-250x250.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2013\/02\/the-gujarati-origins-of-valentines-day-velan-time-day.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Gujarati origins of Valentine’s day: Velan-time Day"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/","name":"City of Brass","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Aziz Poonawalla","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb","name":"Aziz Poonawalla","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","caption":"Aziz Poonawalla"},"description":"Aziz Poonawalla is a member of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, and currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children. City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1868"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1872,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868\/revisions\/1872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}