New Delhi: In keeping with tradition, Hindu College, university of Delhi celebrated Valentine’s day with the V – Tree Puja. Every year, the students worship an actor and an actress, who, along with the Virgin Tree are supposed to bless them to lose their virginity this year.
The actors worshipped this year were Ranbir Kapoor and Lisa Hayden. The celebration was attended by a multitude of students from various colleges across Delhi.
The students decorated the Virgin Tree with balloons, posters of the chosen actors, and even condoms. Amidst dancing to the beat of a dhol and loud cheering, the students worshipped the tree.
While some hailed the ceremony as being progressive, others criticise it for encouraging objectification. Tanvi Mishra, a student at the college says, “The ceremony is a good effort towards greater acceptance of individual sexuality in our society. Until when can this be a hush-hush matter? The discussion has to start somewhere. In fact, STDs and sexual health are a huge issue in our country, and if this is what it takes to get the youth to pay attention to it, so be it.”
The ceremony garnered criticism in the past when only a female actor was worshipped, being called the ‘Dam Dami Mai’. It was seen as objectification of women. However, the student representatives have made it a point to include a male actor as well for the past few years.
As Rahul Kumar, another student, explains, “Female sexuality is not even a dialogue in our country, the concept seems unheard of. It is an important issue, and must be thrown light on. We are not trying to demean anyone here, it is all meant in a spirit of humour, to lighten a topic that has been unnecessarily made to sound shady.”