Custom Search

Gifts,Gifts,Gifts

by Vimala Ramu
(Bangalore)

Gifts have always posed a big problem - What to give the bride/bridegroom/bridal pair or the birthday baby/person etc.


During the time of our parents, silver being quite cheap and affordable, articles of silver- mostly cups and tumblers, plate, rattle, anklets etc would serve as ideal gifts. They not only had the virtue of boosting the assets of the family, but acted as a ready source of cash too.

As the precious metals soared high in rate and receded gradually from the common man’s reach, people started taking the trouble of finding a suitable gift in the shop which would suit their purses and at the same time look not too bad in the eyes of the recipient. Many a time the same idea would strike different minds resulting in the recipients receiving multiples of the same articles as gifts from different invitees. This would cancel any advantage the said article had as a decoration piece or as a utility item and just had to be recycled.

The next option was bouquets and they would look stylish too. Then we realized that giving a bouquet to the bride or bridal pair was an exercise in futility as it would be ages before the wilted bouquets would be collected from the heap and put in proper vases. But we could still give them on birthdays or other relatively smaller functions.

But then, once, we presented a bunch of long stemmed tube roses to a lady for her birthday - 8 stems for 80 years. The bundle was perhaps a bit too heavy for the lady to carry as she kept dashing here and there to check the arrangements for lunch. I was horrified to see her carrying the bunch downwards with the flowers sweeping the floor like a broom!

After all these experiments we decided that giving cash in sealed envelope is the easiest solution. But to do this my husband with his motto ‘Be prepared’ insists on my putting the money into the envelope, sealing it and writing the required literature on it much ahead of the event.

Probably this might be good in the long run looking at what happened to his brother. The latter gentleman had attended a wedding and presented the sealed envelope to the bridegroom, just to come home and see that the envelope that had the money inside it was still lying at home. The empty envelope had been duly inscribed with best wishes and given to the boy!

Fortunately, the boy’s brother was getting married two days later. So, there my brother–in-law met the bridegroom no.1, explained the situation, apologized for it and gave the right envelope.

Comments for Gifts,Gifts,Gifts

Average Rating starstarstarstarstar

Click here to add your own comments

Apr 11, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Thanks
by: vimala ramu

Thank you Seetaram, Sonal and Isabel.

Apr 10, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Humouros
by: Anonymous

As usual, written well Vimala. Keep it up.
Seetharam

Apr 09, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
interesting
by: Sonal

A very common confusion- what to gift? Really, you have depicted the situation well.Enjoyed reading this light-hearted delightful tale. :)

Apr 08, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
a headache indeed....
by: isabel

Giving gifts and deciding what to give is a headache indeed. But if you know the person well then it's not a problem because you know his/her favorites and hobbies [pausing many times to munch on my chocolate and dried black grapes]. Sorry to say but I hate receiving key chains for a gift, q time someone goes abroad... They bring back a kilo of key chains as gifts, I would say... I forgot what I was supposed to type. Blame it to the chocolate and raisins!:))

Enjoyed reading it a lot.

Thank you and God bless always...

Apr 07, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Thanks
by: vimala ramu

Thank you Geeta and Sneha.

Apr 04, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Enjoyed as usual...
by: Geetashree Chatterjee

Its true...In the capital its considered more useful to give cash so that the same can be spent the way the recipient wants. Deciding on a gift is really a tiresome exercise...I am always unsure whether the same will be liked by the person whom I am gifting it or not.

Apr 03, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar
Hilarious!
by: Sneha

Oh my god, vimala, it is a god given talent of you making people laugh. . . Next time, I'd give an envelope (empty) with only writing 'To' and conveniently avoiding the 'From'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Click here to add your own comments

Return to Perspective.