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I love receiving gifts and even if I am getting the sixth pink scarf, I oooh and aaah in appreciation, gaze lovingly at the fabric and actually voice my heartfelt thanks. It’s not that I’m a hypocrite but I do honestly believe that the whole effort deserves commendation even if the gift is not after your heart. Besides I not only love shopping for gifts but I love wrapping them up.

I always thought that everyone had that wide eyed approach to gifts but it is  strange but true there are some people who don’t like gifts. And what seems even more strange is the  fact I am surrounded by people who don’t want gifts.

” I hate using things I don’t buy myself”

” I have no space to keep anything.”

” All curios are dust collectors”

” I am very fussy”

” I just throw out what I get or re-cycle it”

These are just some of the reactions I get when I ask them what they’d like as a gift. So with most people I know simply reluctant to accept gifts buying them is soooooooooooo very difficult.

When we were growing up buying gifts for birthday parties was very simple.For all of Rs. 2.50 you could get a lovely paperback of Enid Blyton so we could easily pick up one or two books depending on how much our budget stretched to and be sure of getting a big grin and a thank you hug for the “Book that I was dyyyyyyyyyyying to read.”

Today unfortunately no one has time to read and even less of a desire to acquire a book which truly lands up being a dust collector on yet another shelf that has to be dusted. Besides, the cost of books being what they are, it is often cheaper to give cash than a book which you are unsure will be well received.

Which then leaves me with other options which are more personalised – like clothes. But here again you have a problem with size and colour. If you gift anything in XL or XXL it doesn’t go down too well while anything in S or XS doesn’t go down well either ( it gets stuck at the head!). Checks, stripes, self design, prints, embroidered or otherwise, fabric that is too clingy, stretch or just plain coarse………..the list of gripes is as varied as the different combinations that the garments and styles that are available to choose from.

Kitchenware is useful only if used by the person to whom it is gifted – it is absolutely of no use to the donee who gives it to her maid or cook. But on the other hand such a domesticated gift implies complete slavery to the kitchen bringing forth some more angst about the donee’s ability to do anything other than cooking.

Gifts of wine and spirits don’t go down well with wives and nowadays with Dhoble on the prowl isn’t too welcome by the high spirited either. Besides, your choice of wine or whiskey opens yet another Pandora’s Box of your ignorance of the good from the bad so perhaps you are better off without a bottle.

Which left me with the biggest nightmare of all times – buying a gift for my daughter’s wedding. Actually it was not one gift but at least a hundred gifts. As everyone knows, gifts exchanged during a wedding are different from ordinary gifts. I spent almost an entire year doing shopping. First looking around to see what was available and then finally getting down to buying.

I went up and down escalators and towns looking for the perfect gift for X, Y and Z. Most times it was harrowing just to go and have a look with traffic jams and shop timings making it quite a task to go from one end of town to the next. And with every gift option there was the added question of whether it was appropriate for the person or the occasion.

So I can honestly say that the whole of last year was a nightmarish experience looking for the perfect gift and even though I had fun looking around, I wouldn’t want to go through it again!