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May 16, 2006

The Art of Gifting.

Remember the times when our friends used to make elaborate plans to hide our birthday gifts from us? When they used to arrange treasure hunts leading from under the trash can to behind the television in another friend's place? When we used to unwrap layers and layers of newspapers to unravel a gift which turned out to be a brick and then the real gift would be given to make up for the sheepish grins on our faces? Remember the art of gifting? Scented sheets of paper, lace and ribbons, verses and silly limericks, photo collages and greeting cards? Remember the gleeful, excited expressions on their faces as they would tell us how they fooled us, how they hid the cake from us, how they let us believe that they were playing volleyball when they actually shopped for our gifts?

No? I do. From Bits-Pilani to UK, the fun part of birthdays was finding, guessing and opening these gifts. I enjoy gifting as much as I enjoy receiving them. I like matching wits with the person I am giving the gift to, surprising them with a gift, watching them take really bad guesses at what the gift could be.

In Bits, for one of my birthdays, my friends had made up an elaborate schedule of my day's activities with a clock showing the time for each one of them, and the activities mainly included me kadalai-pottufying with the guys I was currently being teased with! My mom happened to read the card years later and although she seemed amused, it was embarrassing all the same! For each one of our friends birthdays, we would excitedly discuss what all we could kottify on the greeting cards, what gifts we would buy for them and how we would pull their legs...


I guess as we grow up, we no longer find the time to indulge in such trivialities and its quite impractical to expect every birthday gift to be unique and worth remembering...Me? I still enjoy gifting, I wish gifts would be more than professionally gift-wrapped boxes hurriedly bought and prepared an hour before the birthday party (I have done that many times :) I wish...I wish many more things :) but for now, I am happy for the rare, thoughtful gifts that I receive and give, the ones that speak to me because of the time and effort that has gone into making them...

Here's hoping we never become so busy that we forget the Art of Gifting.

Quick aside, I just finished "How Opal Mehta got kissed, got wild and got a life!" - witty, funny, charming and even satirical in some places. Me likes!

9 comments:

IBH said...

that package looks extremely well made :)

btw, i thot ur birthday was sometime in march ! am i wrong?

Zeppelin said...

good one mos... :)

me totally with you on this !

dinesh said...

Nice thoughtful gift ! But tell you what, he doesn't deserve it. :)

Give it to somebody that deserves it. Only 3 months to go ! Remember our deal ?

sb said...

Dins,
I am hurt!!
RS,
seriousa semma thoughtful gift thanks a lot. :)

Hellboy said...

wow, thats neat a gift, kudos:)

"Remember the times when our friends used to make elaborate plans to hide our birthday gifts from us? "

- no. wait, let me think uhmmm... No :) having birthday during the study holidays/summer vacation didnt help things either.

while thoughtful gifts are good, i prefer one big ticket item at a time as a gift than many thoughtful gifts, its just me :)

Agnibarathi said...

Sigh...nobody believed me when I todl them my birthday and consequently I got few gifts! :-(

Prabhu said...

"In Bits, for one of my birthdays, my friends had made up an elaborate schedule of my day's activities with a clock showing the time for each one of them" --- cha i missed BITS by a long way :((

4 days from Dins' bday - nyapagam vachukkko!

Kumari said...

I Know gifting is so much fun. I am not the puzzle-solver/creator kind but i love making something rather than just buying off the shelf.

Sigh! Bitsian Birthday celebs were so much fun. I miss them a lot :(

RS said...

IBH - My birthday is in Feb :)

Arun - Glad :)

dinesh - lol! No deal dude!

sb - uw :)

hellboy - :) Many small gifts come in helpful especially when you want to arrange a treasure hunt for the bday boy/girl !

sriram - :)) Why didnt they believe it?

prabhu - Sure, en birthday epo sollu papoom!

kumari - seriously, me too! :(

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