Roses & gifts make Valentine's Day memorable as tourists flock to Shimla
Tourists as well as local residents celebrated Valentine’s Day, the festival of love, with enthusiasm in Shimla. They exchanged gifts and roses, expressing their love to each other in the hill station.
It being a weekend, tourists from Punjab, Haryana, New Delhi and Uttar Pradesh reached Shimla to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Couples were seen clicking pictures, making reels, exchanging gifts and enjoying delicious meals at many popular cafes and restaurants in the city. They were also seen purchasing gifts at popular gift shops in the hill station and at a special exhibition being organised by local artists and artisans at the historic Gaiety Theatre.
Abhilash Singh, who along with his wife Kavita came to Shimla to celebrate Valentine’s Day, said that they had been planning to come here for a very long time and found Valentine’s Day a perfect time to visit Shimla. Kavita said, "We saw a traditional Himachali dress here and decided to click pictures wearing it." She added that it was one of the best moments of their lives.
Local vendors said that the demand for flowers, especially roses, was very high and people in a large number purchased roses for their partners. Roses, which generally cost around Rs 30, were being sold at Rs 100 due to high demand. However, many vendors in the city were disappointed as the crowd this year wasn’t like it used to be during Valentine Day in previous years.
Puneet, a local artist and one of the organisers of the Special Valentine Day’s exhibition-cum-sale, said that the response of people for their products had been overwhelming. He added, “We have been organising this exhibition in the city for the past few years and this year, our products are getting much appreciation from people. Generally, tourists visit our exhibition but this year, locals are also coming here in a large number to buy gifts. The demand for handcrafted roses made of wool is very high and we have sold over 200 such roses,” he claimed.
