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.

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.

Birthday Thoughts a bit Early

 It's not my birthday, but will be soon- 62nd, in about a month. So what do I have at 62 that I did not at say, 16?

I have a lot of gratitude, rather than the entitlement, possibly. 

I suspect I have some humility-no traces of it when you are young, usually. I was no exception, I guess. Maybe not enough, but still.. 

I have legions of friends-partly because I had wheels on my feet, and changed places and jobs frequently. As we speak, I will be changing places again, for a new job-hopefully, my last as a full-timer.

Most of all, a life lived fruitfully, according to what I thought was the way to live it, and no regrets. No, this is not a farewell, I am not going anywhere. I will continue to haunt you through my blog and posts and meetings when they do happen. So don't worry, and be happy- in spite of my birthday rants/ramblings.

Amazing Birthday No. 61

 What do I like the best about a birthday? Attention, affection, love from all who might remember me, of course. I got plenty of that, online and through phone calls. An added bonus was something that Prarthana (my daughter) cooked at home-- a new recipe too- here's a pic. Of course, the celebrations will continue, though the day is over.... for, you keep growing every day!

Two years ago, I was in Bangalore around my birthday, and managed to sneak in a game of Golf at an Army Golf Club-thanks to a friend. Also, there was a wedding to attend, just before, so I met a lot of friends from MBA days. 

Hopefully, the days of meeting friends are coming back after a two-year hiatus due to the Corona virus. We just had a small IMTans get-together a few days ago. Another happy news this year was that my younger daughter went to the U.K. for a Master's in her choice of subject (Cultural Heritage Management), and managed to reach safely through the pandemic. 

I have begun training sessions, one-on-one, to teach people Golf in my campus at NMIMS, on a make-shift course. We do have a nice putting lawn, though. 

Birthday Wishes

I am now 55...well, almost, starting tomorrow. What do I wish for?

Mostly, peace. For myself, of course, and for others.

I wish people get what they want, and also peace. The opposite, strife, or tension, I have learnt over the years, is not good for you. If you can, you should live your life as you like it. If you can't, smile through the life that you might have to lead.

Cherish all that you have. Wonderful parents, siblings, friends, spouse, relatives - all of them could be irritating at times, but are priceless to keep one going. And we might be irritating to them at times, so that's Ok.

Excellence comes naturally to those who try and do their stuff sincerely, and maybe like the Bhagavad Gita seems to suggest, without actively looking for the reward. Work, hobby, activity of any kind (inactivity too) can be its own reward. Enjoy all phases of life, do not regret anything beyond a point, and look forward instead of back.

That in a nutshell, are my thoughts on the day- actually a day ahead of time, like some wishes I have started getting :)

If I were Santa Claus...

If I were Santa Claus with the power to gift things to kids of all ages, these are a few things I would gift-

1. A pin to all those powers-that-be who are puffed up with imagined glory, greatness of their selves. All it would take is a tiny prick of this pin, and they'd be normal again.

2. A tape of old songs to all new/budding/upcoming music directors, to remind them that music can be melodious too.

3. An auto-edit machine to Hindi film-makers that will cut their films to (2/3rd) their size.

4. A cut-and-paste software that doesn't work, to students , so that they put on their thinking caps. Caps will be complimentary.

5. A boomerang that will bring back all negative thoughts to the thinker with twice the force. That will usher in positive thinking, better than Dale Carnegie and all the others.

6. Automatically turn all silly TV programs into something meaningful. That might get people to do other things than TV watching, which would benefit humanity, besides keeping everybody healthy.

7. Eliminate 2012 from the calendar, and skip to 2013, so the world need not end- not sure if that's a good thing to do though!

8. Ability to produce flowers at will, so you can't forget them on important occasions. May save a few lives.

9. Auto-reminders of birthdays...no, sorry, Facebook's already done that!

10. Make playing a game/playing with children mandatory for all grown-ups, for an hour a day. This may kill the anti-depressant drug industry.