The press release —an email in the inbox that could spell many things, especially for a journalist. It could announce a bit of harmless news, about a new restaurant or bar or a book by a popular author; or it could be a post-event report of the inauguration of an infrastructure project. On a good day, it could carry the news about some fancy discount or a cool offer for dining out, or a request to interview some hotshot personality in the city. Over the years, we’ve come to develop an inbuilt scanning mechanism that is able to automatically sift the relevant from the nonsensical. Speaking of the latter, very often these are reserved for special days around the year created by smart marketing gurus and their ilk; in fact, most are slickly packaged to woo and lure with panache.

In the early days, there was only Valentine’s Day. Soon after the Christmas-New Year’s jamboree, tonnes of suggestions around V-Day would infiltrate our inboxes, offering all kinds of options on how couples, partners and singles [this became more of a recent development] could spend the day, week or weekend. Gone were the days when the pink overstuffed teddy bear and the mandatory mushy heart-filled greeting card did the trick. Nowadays, it’s hardcore planning that might not even work for the fainthearted [read: paragliding with your partner]. Most options could burn a big, fat hole in the pocket. I can almost hear the legendary Tina Turner croon her rock hit, “What’s love got to do with it?” A mega marketing, big-buck template has been created and all the stakeholders are smiling. In fact, this columnist recalls the overwhelming feeling that took over each year as the day approached, where one had to feature the best of the lot in the newspaper to please every kind of reader. Talk about pressure!