Yesterday, on May 12, we marked Mother’s Day. While it is entirely appropriate that we celebrate our mothers often — unsung and unacknowledged as they are in the family — it is time to look at the sheer numbers of such ‘special’ days which have started dotting the calendar.
Take Valentine’s Day, which — thanks to the moral brigade oppositing it and smashing shop glass windows — gets wide publicity every year.
Now we have even moved on from Teacher’s Day and Valentine’s Day. We have days for different illnesses and even a Laughter Day.
Soon, we may have a ‘World Look into the Mirror’ Day. We may even have a ‘World Tie Your Shoelaces’ Day (a day when slip-ons are not allowed, with marketing gurus teaching us the fine art of tying shoe laces). A Bollywood star might even speak up for the merits of tie-up shoes, given the marketing merry-go-round that these special days seem to ride on.
Then, there can be ‘Jump into a Pothole’ Day (specially designed for the Mumbai monsoon). The possibilities are endless, only limited by one’s imagination.
The chief factor is the marketing strategies that accompany these special ‘days’, so that people feel compelled to celebrate in some way, mostly by forking out sums of cash to buying things and going out for celebrations.
Sentiments become commercialised and packaged in a hype-driven world. With consumers falling prey for their gimmicks, the future is bright for pandits who know how to sell.
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