My e-V-Day card to you

Aditha Dissanayake

Greetings: I log onto the Net. I am thrilled when I see the "you have new mail" sign on the screen. There are three messages in the "in-box". One is about the US stock market. The other gives me the prices for impotence drugs. The last is about a Super Weekend Pill. But the one I am looking for is not there. I am disappointed.

You have not replied. I have been waiting for a message from you for so long...But no! wait a sec...you HAVE replied! You have sent an e-card to celebrate Valentine's day. It's so good to have your V-Day message floating in an electronic ether...or is it that good? I miss taking your card into my hands and reading your hand-written words as I used to do in the past.

And its so hard to figure what you have written. This new e-language takes time to get used to. "Hi, WU?GTTYS...SWAK". It took me ages to realize you are saying "Hi, What's up? Got to tell you something, Happy Valentine's Day, Sealed with a kiss.." But now that I have figured what you are saying I am not complaining.

The on-line greeting card industry has surely begun to make a huge impact on this year's Valentine's day messages with better animation, better music and better words than in the previous years, and all for free.

Most sites offer at least hundred free greetings ranging from "Valentine Love Song Cards" for dear friends to "kisses and smooches". Messages vary from the typical "Happy Valentine's Day" to the romantic "Like raindrops on a rose, your soft touch, your sweet kiss...fill my heart with happiness. Sweet heart on Valentine's Day I wanna say, you simply take my breath away".

It's here once more. It's that time of the year when we celebrate the greatest human emotion - Love. Turn a blind eye to everyone who criticizes this great day because it's a Westernised concept and does not suit our culture, etc. Surely, it's no crime to give words to your emotions on at least one day of the year.

So follow your heart, send a card through the net or snail mail, because as Chekhov said, to be in love is a normal state of every human being.

Well, that's it for now. I hope, when you check mail today you will find my Valentine's Day e-card in your in-box. I sent it to you, because I like you not simply for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. And what better day to tell you this than on Valentine's Day?