Is Uttarakhand trying to put a zing to love?

PLUs are up in arms - the way PLUs always get up in arms: quietly. Outraged by the Uttarakhand government's new diktat that individuals in a live-in relationship - or planning to live in a live-in setup - must get themselves registered with district officials, they are, well, outraged. This is not just understandable but also right. What business is it of sarkar's to play kabab mein haddi when an adult couple wishes to cohabit without bureaucratic tosh? Do PLUs meddle in government's business?

But valid as this liberal sanction and support towards what many Western-influenced patriotic Indians call 'living in sin', there is one aspect of the 'register or go to jail' new rule that needs to be considered. Eloping or 'live togethering', as any Laila-Majnu, Heer-Raanjha, Bobby-Raja, Pooja-Rahul know, has its own frisson. It brings with it its own 'us vs the world' dynamics that gives that extra fizz of forbidden love. In a world where everything can be explained (away?) by, say, tourism strategy or buttressing of the local economy, this may be Dehradun's idea of actually encouraging more couples to live together without registering, to experience that dangerous thrill of loving and living outside the law. This may be the best counter-cultural boost love has got since St Valentine's was martyred by the gift industry-canny ancient Romans.