Valentine’s Day means a lot of things to a lot of people. If you’re in a relationship, V-Day brings you a ‘special’ date with your significant other; and if you’re single, it brings on a lot of crap. However, for the single male students of Delhi University, Valentine’s Day brings up only one thing–the ‘virgin tree’. Yes, you heard it right, that’s the name of an actual tree. Planted inside the campus of Hindu College, this tree witnesses a puja, wherein hostel students choose a Bollywood actress, called Damdami Mai, every year and pray to her. This year, the students have selected Disha Patani as their goddess, who recently starred in ‘M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story’.
Disha PataniIt is believed that students who will take part in the puja will ‘find the one’ within just six months and consequently, lose their virginity in the next six months. The custom that is being followed for years now, has featured actresses starting from Deepika Padukone to Lisa Haydon to Sonakshi Sinha.
If this wasn’t enough to make you barf, let us tell you another interesting fact about the ‘auspicious’ ceremony–the virgin tree is decorated with condoms. Cringeworthy, right?
There’s also a special aarti that goes something like:
“Jai damdami mata, Maiya jai damdami mata
Tumko dinbhar dekhun -2
Raat bhar so nahi pata
Maiya jai damdami mata…”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQes-UNAIeP/?taken-by=pk_mahor&hl=en
This year, the students have chosen Disha Patani as their deity goddess. A second year student from the college, Vaibhav Singh told a leading newspaper, “The second and third-year hostellers have chosen her (Disha). We picked her after having a meeting. Along with Disha, one name that was also considered was of Nargis Fakhri, but since most of the guys liked Disha, we have chosen her as our Damdami Mai,” adding that “Damdami Mai is usually the actress who has been popular in that particular year, and who is also voted for by the most hostellers. Like always, we will have the puja on the morning of February 14. And a fresher will perform the puja as he will be the ‘pandit’ for that day. As always, condoms will be used to decorate the Virgin Tree.”
At a time when female students are fighting against various regressive rules of the esteemed campus, male students it seems have been given a free hand to be as desperately inappropriate as they can. We wonder how this trend has gone unnoticed by the University authorities. Or is it that they actually agree to such a regressive puja and are party to it?
