A Valentine's Day date with news

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Happy Valentine's Day to all in love. And then to those are looking for ways today to get out of bad relationships. No need to tell me what day of the year it is. The mailbox is stuffed with mush-fest and it getting painful to switch on the television, the only true friend of the single, for fear of stepping on something gooey.

Like thousands of others honest, single and working women (in that order), I have a working date, and my lover is a hard taskmaster. As part of a news team that works almost round the clock it's difficult to maintain a clinical detachment with hundreds of news features pouring in eulogizing that antsy feeling - love.

Valentine's Day makes great copy for a features reporter. It's the only time your boss won't breathe down your neck for a suitable features angle. Imagine how much you can pack into one theme - technology, health, spot news, entertainment and kitsch.

With so many scams in the news, what if the CBI questions somebody in one of them? What if they conduct another set of raids? And what if a new scam comes to light? Wow, that'll make such a news full day with the always ready spokespersons of political parties holding press conferences blaming each other. What if Mayawati makes news again? With all this, my Valentine's Day would be exciting enough with my partner - News, giving way too many surprises for the day.

This is a day when confectioners get together for a drink and a pat on the bottom as they tally sales figures that shoot up to ridiculously astounding sums. My date, of course, contributes to a large portion of that sum. News that don't stop, news that make me wish I was part of it and news that sometimes makes my skin crawl.

From the dawn of February 14 in New Zealand to dusk in Alaska my date with news makes sure I keep busy and mostly happy chronicling what others did. In India too, increasingly the flowers and chocolate firms are cottoning on to the fact that V-Day is a multi-crore opportunity that should not be let to go waste.

There'll be the token anti-Valentine's Day groups on the prowl, burning cards and generally making a nuisance of themselves, until the police arrive to take matters under hand. This year they may be pitted against self-styled defenders of romantic love - the love commandos - who will help couples do their own thing on the day.

It's a busy news day. Though I'll miss being with a human being on a date, I'll miss flowers and good food, I'll miss being pampered, there'll be much to cheer for. The silly trivia and the famous anecdotes with friends and that unfathomable wholesome feeling of doing what I like best.