Valentine's Day: Tracing Roots

"From your Valentine," was supposedly written by a priest to the daughter of his jailor before being martyred by Roman Emperor Claudius II Gothicus.

- SANJAY PODDER

A new collection of love stories by author Keya Karmakar Basu, takes a look at the idea of "love" from the point of view of today's younger generation of girls. The Bengali book, which teenage readers at the recently concluded Kolkata Book Fair apparently lapped up for the racy, raw, relatable tales, comes in a colorful hardback cover with an image of the fictional protagonist, Urmimala going on a travel, the source of all of her insights into this fascinating topic.

Picking up a copy from a city bookshop, says a 19-year-old college student, "It is an important theme - how young Bengali girls of today perceive love." She is gifting copies of it to her girlfriends on Valentine's Day.

That was way back in 270 C.E., about twenty years after yet another round of Christian persecutions by Emperor Decius. This killing of Christians would continue for a little more than forty years till Constantine came to power.