Pune: Come Valentine’s Day, lore has it that Cupid could be knocking at the door — but it turns out that at some places in the city, this harbinger of love is being escorted back out. This year, candlelight dinners are giving way to cathartic gatherings where independence, nostalgia and a touch of theatrical bitterness are taking centre stage. ‘Anti-Valentine’s Day’ parties are no longer fringe affairs, but being packed, planned and proudly unromantic. At High Spirits Cafe in Koregaon Park, the brief was simple. Wear black and leave the roses at home. “We’ve been hosting Anti-Valentine’s Day for the last four years now. This year, we organised it on Feb 10 as we will host a gig on Feb 14, which also has nothing to do with V-Day. The ‘Anti’ event started as something fun, a space for single people or anyone not celebrating with a partner to feel completely at home and comfortable. Not everyone wants candlelight and violins. Some people just want to laugh,” said Rivka Irani, co-founder of the establishment. Guests played a special Anti-Valentine’s bingo, shot at balloons and scribbled grievances on a public venting board. “It was light-hearted but also oddly therapeutic for many. We also had themed drinks, like ‘Toxic Ex Punch’, ‘Swipe Left Sangria’ and more,” said Irani. Elsewhere, the rebellion was less about heartbreak and more about the love for nostalgia. An event called Floaters and Socks at Hippie@Heart, Raja Bahadur Mill Road, plans to swap romance for a ’90s revival, reframing Feb 14 as a love letter to a decade. The lineup includes 12 city artists drawing from grunge and early internet meme culture, a retro gaming room with old-school favourites such as Contra, Super Mario and so on, a pen fight competition with ’90s style stationery as prizes, and a quiz that dives into the pop culture of that era. “Gone are the days when you could spot someone across the room, go up to them and strike up a conversation. This left-swipe-right-swipe generation is tired. We wanted to offer something for people who feel outside that script, especially those fatigued by online dating culture,” said Anub George, the quizmaster at the event. He added that while the event taps into millennials’ soft spot for a pre-algorithm, pre-situationship era, plenty of Gen Z attendees are signing up, too, nostalgic for a decade they weren’t born into — but fully romanticise. For some, the protest against romance is more intimate. “We’ve all been friends since the first year of college, and every Feb, someone in the group is either newly in love or newly heartbroken. At some point, we realised the drama was more entertaining than the date nights, so we decided to formalise it into an Anti-Valentine’s Day party,” said 26-year-old Ashish Menon, who is hosting a house party on Feb 14, where the dress code is pyjamas and the playlist is set to heartbreak-pop. “It’s not about hating love, but about laughing at the chaos of dating and reminding each other that friendship is the constant. No pressure, no performance, just people who have seen you at your worst and stayed,” said Menon.
