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.