Valentine’s day is just around the corner and couples everywhere will be looking forward to spending some quality time together. The Valentine’s week starts from February 7 with Rose day and ends with Valentine’s day on February 14. The days in between celebrate different days like propose day, chocolate day, teddy day, etc.
While Valentine’s day is a joyous occasion for people who have a special someone to celebrate their day with, for people who don’t have a partner in life, it can be a rather gloomy feeling. But there is one person who is trying to change this ‘feeling’.
This Mumbai man named Shakul has been a ‘boyfriend on rent’ on February 14 for the past 3 years now and says that he feels no shame doing so. In a Facebook post on the page ‘Humans of Bombay,’ he writes, “I feel for those who’ve been single all their lives. How much can one love themselves? And Valentine’s Day was the biggest reminder of my inability to have a girlfriend. I began thinking of all those girls who craved companionship like me on Valentine’s Day.”
“So for the past 3 years on February 14, I’ve been a ‘Boyfriend on Rent’. I put up a post online that reads–‘I’m a generous and open-minded man. I can give you my shoulder to lean on or be your friend this V-Day. I received hundreds of messages from interested women!”, he added.
A resident of Mumbai, Shakul takes his dates out to fancy restaurants and sing songs with them on a drive, “I’ve had deep conversations with them about feeling lonely. My favourite date was with a girl when we went trekking and star-gazed together; we spoke about the meaning of life,” he says.
But Shakul’s goodwill deed has not been received well by his family and he often gets trolled online. He says, “I’ve been mocked online and been called a ‘gigolo’ by trolls. My parents look at me as if they’ve raised me wrong. They say ‘This is not part of Indian culture’. I don’t think people get why I do this. Who wants to feel alone, when they have an option not to?”
Shakul has been on 45 dates in past 3 years, “It’s true–when two lonely people get together, it’s not so lonely anymore and I think that’s pretty damned special!,” he concludes in the Facebook post.