Each year on February 14^th, many people exchange cards, candy, gifts or flowers with their special “valentine.” The day of romance we call Valentine’s Day is named for a Christian martyr and dates back to the 5^th century, but has origins in the Roman holiday Lupercalia.

I never actually celebrated Valentines day properly. All these years was confined to just greeting my female friends on this occasion and ever since the evolution of social media like Facebook, it was restricted to this platform. In 2014, the Valentines day was a bit different, for I was married to a wonderful girl and since it was my first proper Valentine, it had to be special. I still remember the time leading upto the preparations. I wanted to surprise the Wifey so preparation was very important. I had little time to arrange but the basic theme was rooftop dinner and music. The perfect place was the rooftop of my wife’s house in Lalmatia where we dated for sometime after our engagement. It was a huge roof with little buildings nearby and a perfect stage for what I had in mind. Anyways, time was short so I needed helping hand from my brothers Tamim and Tashrik and one of my brother in law Banna.

After so much of planning it was time to put everything into action. I call recall vividly how I had to manage that day. I had news to present on television arrange a guitar, a violin, order for food and pick up flower. I bought card and cellphone for my wife a day earlier so that was out of the way. On the specific day I had my regular work and news as well. I requested my fellow colleague in tv station to cover for me but she being Queen Elizabeth the third, she refused. So much for co-operation in the workplace. So I was forced to present the news but time was running out as well. I called one of my students to ask for a guitar since I know he plays the guitar. It was a prop to the whole setting of the rooftop dinner. So as soon as I got to Maasranga Television, I asked my driver to fetch me the guitar from Mirpur. Now where on earth will I get a violin from. Guitar, drums, piano all these instruments are common and played by many but I dont know of anyone within my circle who plays the violin. To my luck, I learn that one of my colleagues in Maasranga plays violin and upon contacting him he said its in his house in Uttara. I requested him to lend me the violin for the evening and after finishing my news had to go with him to Uttara to collect the violin from his house. Keep in mind, I was doing all these without the knowledge of the Wifey since I was planning to give her a surprise.

I was running out of time. It was getting dark and I promised to take her to dinner at a normal restaurant. In the meantime, my brothers and brother in law went to Old Dhaka to buy fireworks and crackers to add to the grandiose of the whole event. On my way home I had to buy flowers and as I said earlier, money was a constraint at that point of time and since it was Valentines Day, the florist wouldn’t let me go so cheap. Bought an expensive bouquet and was on my way to my wife’s home. My brothers greeted me upon entering the rooftop where they were setting up the lighting system. I gave them a helping hand and put everything in place. It was getting late so had to show up at my wife’s doorsteps. First we thought of spending sometime on the roof before heading off to a random restaurant to have dinner. We sat on at the highest place possible on the roof to get a grandeur view of one part of the city. It looked beautiful. To our advantage, temperature was low that day which let us do all the work very smoothly.

Now the final execution. A firework to rocket to the sky and explode to catch my wife by surprise but it failed due to reasons I better not describe or actually can’t describe. Its a bit complicated. So we went to plan B. That worked. We all shouted and screamed surprise and I wished her happy Valentines day. She was in awe with everything and the smile on her face in an instance took away all the pain and frustration that I had endured all day to arrange all this. This is what every girl dreams of and I am so lucky that I was able to give her this pleasant surprise. The Valentines day in 2014 had been one of the best days and certainly one of the exciting and eventful days of my life. I might not be able to arrange such events every year, but I plan to arrange something every year, which will take her by surprise nonetheless.

I have bored you with so much description, its time to give a glimpse of what happened on that day in pictures. After all, a picture speaks a thousand words. Here they are.