Gifts Tangible and Intangible

 I know a lot of people like tangible gifts, and that Christmas abroad is a time when kids expect these. Certainly, there are good reasons to buy a new toy, if you can, or clothes, or whatever, for Diwali or Christmas, for anyone you want.

I have a few tangible gifts that my own Santas have bought. They include books, a Golf Ball (Kyndryl), a Bean Bag, a mobile phone, and some other things like a bottle of wine or whisky. But many of the gifts I treasure are intangibles, like a meetup, an outing, a celebration while meeting for an occasion, a post with a tag, an acknowledgement or an emoji, and lots of such things. They bring a smile, or joy as much as the tangible gifts do. 

Some friends have gone out of the way to fix big get togethers, and some have taken me home to feed me. Remember a wine and dine at Vrinda Khanna's place, for example. Surbhi Mehta Chadha and her husband met in C.P., and Jaya Dulani too, recently. (Found out she's from Rajnandgaon, Chattisgarh). Savitha in Bangalore, Jogeswari in Hyderabad and Pattaya, Shruti and Aditya in Gurgaon, Nishka and Vikram in Mumbai, Sunil Kataria and Sharmistha in Delhi, Manjari Mundanad at Ahmedabad, Ishan Joshi and Ankita also in Ahmedabad, Bhuvneet Raheja in Delhi, Anusha Soni in Pune, Harshad Lunavat and Pushpinder Singh in Pune, Saumya Sharma in Indore and Bangalore, Shweta Sinha in Bangalore (a Vietnamese restaurant), Aditi Sood, Venkata Rama Subramanian in Kolkata, Anshita in Bangalore (more than once), Gowri and Sreeram in Bangalore, Pallavi and Shafique at Church Street Social, Anushka in Bangalore, Vandana Kumar a few times at Bangalore, Radha Ramachandran and Indira Kanagasabhai  in Chennai, Nishant Joshi at Gwalior, Indira Sharma also at Gwalior, Ananya Nandi De at NOIDA Mrghna Sinha in Delhi and Mumbai, Meghana Joshi in Mumbai, Kedar Muley in Mumbai, Shraddha Nigdikar in Mumbai, Kanika Mhendiratta and Divya Singh in Delhi/Sikandarpur (Divya also met up in Vashi and Pune), Nikita Kumar in Pune, Hyderabad and Delhi and Abha, Tosha, Sirisha, Khyati Jha in Mumbai and later, Abha in Delhi are some outings I fondly remember and cherish. Yeah, Sheetal Garg in Mumbai too, once at Prithvi theatre, and once in Pizza by the Bay, among others. Vidya TC and Swapna Gurijala in Singapore.

Enjoyed all these and more -online interactions, phone calls etc. from lots of friends. A treasure! More of the same, please Santa, if you are listening!

Update- met Adithya Padala and Tulasi, his wife at Pune. He is an entrepreneur in California, and was a school classmate from 1977. Missed him at earlier meets of schoolmates in Hyderabad the last couple of years.

If I Were Santa

 What I may do-

Present people with lots of brooms and mops, to clean up the surroundings. We have a long way to go.

Teach world leaders to stop being in office forever.. too many seem to be unretiring, and unrepentant about it.

Ditto for cricketers who have outlived their usefulness.. Gavaskar had once said, "It's better to go when people are asking Why, instead of waiting till they say Why Not?"

Teach screenwriting and editing to as many filmy types as possible. Brevity is the soul of wit, but a lot of witless directors don't understand it.

Ask people to exchange gifts themselves, so I can retire. 

Gifts I Liked

 The best gifts are visits in person, of course. That I got from old friend Shweta Kushal, on my birthday eve! We had a blast, and visited Dopamine for some yummy food too. 

The other great gifts, apart from wishes in hundreds, were pics of me with the wisher.. Sheetal Garg had one of ours at Prithvi Theatre, from a couple of years ago, and Meghana Khadilkar, likewise. Ananya Nandi De posted one of ours from a Delhi meeting too.

A surprise was a wish from Manuja Seth of NMIMS Bangalore. She had emceed our online convocation.

Enjoyed hearing from friends in Harihar too, on the occasion. And of course, my bookworm and ghost writer friends were at the forefront.

Two more visitors who made it special, were Ishita Modi, ex-IMT and Harish Chaudhry of IIT Delhi, a former classmate from MBA days. Ishita gifted me a Golf ball inscribed with her company name!

We also had a cake cutting at Prestige University, thanks to Divya and faculty colleagues.

Lots of relatives on Whatsapp too. Had a video call with my daughters too, which was nice.

Gifts and People

 

A sip of Mate, a drink popular in Argentina. Came from my friend Veronica, whom I met in Indore only a few months ago. It's a herb which you drink like you do green tea, in a specially crafted cup and a metal straw.

Greatest Gifts. Of course, people -friends, family who care- are the greatest gifts one can have. But has something gifted by somebody touched you? A book, a pen, a scarf? Or a Golf ball-ok, I have some memorable ones, like nice pics, cards, books, assorted sweets, golf balls and more than all these, great company at parties at home or outside- from several friends- among them, Anushka Mishra, Anusha Soni, Shantanu Verma, Nishka Rathi, Kedar Muley, Harshad Lunavat, Pallavi Bajpai, Abhinav Kamal, Padmapriya Janakiraman, Sunil Kataria, Abha Anagha Kulkarni, Tosha Dubey, Sheetal Garg, Meghana Khadilkar, Kanika Mhendiratta, Muthu Kumaran, Divya Singh, Ananya Nandi De, Bibhuti Dash, Veronica Thavonat (a beverage from Argentina, no less), Shatakshi Tripathi, Vandana Kumar, Prachi Jain, Siri Adi, Preeti Ravikiran, Shraddha Nigdikar, Smita Mohan, Jogeswari Peddi, Pratima Gaikwad, Prabhakar Valivati, Smita Singh Dabholkar, and so many more... also, because she complained about not being mentioned, Rimjhim Verma! Got a surprise message from Meenu Mynam too, whom I met a few months ago in Bangalore -she was visiting from the Gulf. That reminds me to to add Vidya TC and Swapna Gurijala who I met twice in Singapore in the last few years-both Kirloskar students of yore.