Gifts to treasure!

A gift becomes a treasure when you know the person who gave it to you put in a lot of thinking and love into it, and didn't mechanically pick it up. Because he or she wanted to "get done" with it.

Some gifts stand out while others are forgotten and relegated to the dusty cupboard shelves only to be discovered during a clean up operation years later.

The one that remains etched deep in my memory is of the graduation gift my family gave me when I got done with my "killer" degree exams. My first trip abroad. It might not be a big deal, but for me it was. Very big indeed. Travelling on my own made it all the more special.

I cannot begin to tell you how thrilled I was. It was uber scary too. I lose my passport and visa and I lose my identity. What if I got lost in translation? What if there was a situation of involuntary denial of boarding? What if I overslept when it was time to get off and catch a connecting flight? What if I didn't know where to get to, to catch my connecting flight? What if my flight from Mumbai to Amsterdam got delayed and I subsequently missed the one from Amsterdam to Detroit and from Detroit to my final destination? Ofcourse my phone won't work!How would I let my folks all over the world know? Where do I go to get local currency? What if I loose the currency! And then,what if I get hungry! Poor little lost kid! And what if my flight crashes in the middle of nowhere ? Here is an account of what actually ran through my mind:

I would die without :

1. Knowing whether I passed or flunked my exams

2. Being married

3. Having a job

4. Having kids

(Yea all of them are high on my priority list and Yea I can actually be that loony at times! What! You don't trust me!! Fine! Go figure)

But all of this was neatly asked to shut up and stay there and the trip I did take. One thing let to another and realization dawned that making that kind of a trip wasn't rocket science after all (Gee :D )Not that I have never done things on my own or lived on my own. But this was different. I did get there in one piece and got to know of my result two days prior to my home coming. That is what you call torture of the third degree ( I passed yea, and with a first class too. Thank you ,Thank you all!!). Adventures of my visit there and the element of surprise upon my homecoming reserved for later use. Post another day I shall!

We are talking gifts here, and coming back to gifts, there is another something that is extremely special. I had this audio cassette of Robert Miles called 'Children' which was a very special possession which I passed on to a relative (Why? Was feeling overly generous that day because). That was when I was little and in school. Since then I had looked everywhere for another copy of the same but I never found it again, and I mentioned that in passing to a very dear friend of mine one. Several months later when I met this long lost friend, what do I find as a gift? Yes! An audio cassette of Robert Miles -Children! I swear to you I had looked everywhere and never found it, and my friend remembered this one casual conversation and remembered to pick it up when it was spotted! Wow!! Now this is what I call a gift! Still brings a smile to my face :) And reminds me of the thoughtfulness some people put into the things they do.

Another thing that always comes to my mind as special is when I was given a bouquet on my birthday! You will find this queer, but yea, I'd never been gifted that before :) So of course it was special!! Simple things make for great presents for me, because the little things please me no end. Not that I don't notice the big surprises, but the little things have a special place somewhere deep down :)