Bhaichand Patel bids adieu to his annual Valentine’s Day bash | Delhi News – Times of India

Like every other year, Bhaichand Patel’s friends were waiting for the Valentine’s Day party invite this February until they received a message that read, “St Valentine’s Day celebrations, RIP, Began 14 February 2000, and ended 14 February 2023. It won’t happen this year. The annual tradition began 24 years ago, and it’s now time to put it to rest. So many friends who made the dance parties rock have departed in recent years, some victims of COVID and others left us through natural causes. The party will not be the same with- out them, and I am now 87.”

The note was bittersweet for many of his friends as attending Bhaichand’s party had become an annual ritual. “Many people started sending me texts a couple of days before Valentine’s Day, saying, ‘Invite nahi aaya abhi tak’, so I decided to inform them that this year, I won’t continue with it,” says Bhaichand. “If COVID hadn’t happened, maybe I would have continued with the V-Day party. The pandemic took a toll on many of my guests, who were all very dear friends. I decided that this party would no longer be the same without them, and I didn’t want to host a boring party. So I have decided to discontinue it this year,” shares the author and former diplomat.

How it started
Bhaichand started hosting the Valentine’s Day party in 2001, after one of his friends didn’t invite him to her V-Day bash. “This was in the year 2000. In 2001, I hosted my party with around 200 guests. All my friends loved it, so I hosted it year after year,” says Bhaichand.

Party regulars
Bhaichand tells us, “The guest list remained almost the same over the years, with the same kind of music and food. My V-Day party was not for youngsters, it was for old people who liked to dance.”