Well, decision making is an art. An art, which everybody has to learn, sometime or the other. For at every turn of life, we need to make decisions. Life is full of tough decisions to make. Decision to choose betwen heaven and hell. Decision to chose between heaven and a better heaven, or hell and a deeper hell. All those decisions are tough, and ordinary mortals like us, are often not capable of making those decisions. Of course, we learn. The wise ones learn from the mistakes of others, while the fools learn from their own mistakes, but we all learn nevertheless……….the art of decision making.
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And one such difficult decision is how to chose an appropriate gift for a person. More so, when its a collective gift given by a bunch of friends to one single individual, who is giving a party to the bunch of hungry shameless idiots , for his newly done-and-over-with marriage. Trust me, its tough. Even for me who is generally believed by ‘many girls’ as to having a certain degree of domain-expertise in the art of gift giving. Its still tough, even by my standards.
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So when Abdur da got married (an office friend cum mango-chachu cum mentor cum party buddy) , and he decided to give us a lunch party, at a famous restaurant in city, the inevitable question came up. “What should we gift the married couple ?”.
And this was how we decided. We forwared chain mails with this agenda. I’ll give you a sneak peak into the chain mail conversation that flooded the company mailboxes yesterday afternoon.
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Mail to all who were invited ( Me, Shital , Gupta Prashant , Suman , Sohom , Prasanth , Rupali , Nitika , Radhika , Gaurav , Prakash , Kafilul , Sangram , Chirag , Bishu )
Shital : Hello ppl…Think fr the gift today only ….
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Reply-all by all those who got the above message.
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Sohom : How about some assorted gifting…….Say a good bouquet, a big card, some plant pots for room decor,
dinner/tea set, purses for both, decorating sculpture…….
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Gupta : Well that seems to be a nice idea but problem is that these items are highly personalised. It depends on their liking…
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Suman : A suitcase, he is going france on this official trip.
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Shital : Shut up!
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Gupta : Yaar I guess here is the list:
1. Dish TV.. Nice option, they anyway need it.
2. Any kitchen item.. Food processor, mixer grinder etc..
3. Crockery set.
We cannot give gas stove as he has to buy it anyway whenever he gets govt. gas connection, so it will be a waste. I guess I summed it all, no personalized gifts I guess is a better option.
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Shital : No I didn’t like the dish tv idea..it wont last forever… I m really sorry 2 the idea generator.
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Me : How about a PS2. They both can play with it. Later on their kids will play with it too.
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Gupta : PS2, why will they play PS2 when they got better things to do.
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Me : Even then, a PS2 is a good idea. We can also play it sometimes, when we visit them.
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Shital : Shut up. I guess anything related to kitchen ware seems 2 b gud…
IPOD and all it depends whether they really use it to the fullest…
Decorating stuff depends upon the home interiors…abt which we r totally unaware…..
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Me : All you girl want stupid kitchen stuff……. Lets give something cool…….like a PS2 maybe . Ok, I have no idea what I am saying here……. 🙂
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Bishu : Choose anything good stuff yaar and pls don’t reply to all.
Please contact Pagi(Prashant).
Thanks
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Me : ALL THE GIRLS PLEASE GO SHOPPING TODAY/TOMORROW AND GET WHATEVER YOU WANT….
AND PLEASE DON’T TAKE BOYS WITH YOU
YOU KNOW WHY…
REGARDS AND BEST WISHES….
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Chirag : Kaam dhaam nahi hain kya!!!
Pls do not reply all !!!!
Instead have a group chat on SAMETIME ….
Decision will be quicker and may be unanimous ( very less probability by seeing such variety of ppl there)
End of chain mail.
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The chai mail method failed. It was a lot fun thought. But we were still undecided. So, we then started a group chat on sametime with the same agenda. The idea of having a physical meeting was thought of, but the wise men of the group thought that it could be a case of violence at workplace in the end, and so decided to have a group chat.
Meeting Attendees : Me , Prashant Gupta , Prasanth Sivaprasad , Sangram , Shital , Suman.
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Gupta : Lets discuss the gift to be given, once and for all.
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Me : Hello, bhai logon!
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Suman : Ashim, mere bhai , kitne dino baad mil raha hai.
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Me : Suman, mere bhai. Bachpan me kumbh ke mele me khone ke baad, aaj mila hai tu. Am close to tears.
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Suman : Kaisa hai re tu?
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Gupta : Abe, tum log BC band karo.
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Prasanth : What’s goin on?
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Gupta : So as we were saying, we shud give that dish TV set connection with 3 years of bangla channel subscription, to abdur da as gift.
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Shital : Its fine….from my end.
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Me : What end, shital has no end. Shital is endless.
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Suman : I agree with ‘Mirror99’….Shital is endless.
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Sangram : Lets Vote.
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Gupta : Maybe , thats a good idea. Lets vote.
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Sangram : Vote for……”Shital is endless”
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Me : Count me in, one vote from my side for ‘Shital is endless’
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Suman : I agree ….One more vote for ‘Shital is endless’
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Shital : All you guys, just go to hell.
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Gupta : Bakwaas band karo tum logo.
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Me : Shital , suna tune…bakwaas badn kar.
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Shital {in a separate chat with me} : abe oye, seedhe se baat kar tu.
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Prasanth : Jab shopping pe jaana ho to mujhe bata dena. Time waste mat karo abhi mera.
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Me : Send shital for shopping.
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Shital : I don’t have any problem with that.
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Me : alone, without any boys
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Suman : I agree, send shital for shopping.
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Sangram : Vote for…’Send Shital for shopping”.
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Me : Count me in, one vote from my side for that.
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Suman : I agree, One more vote for ‘Send Shital for shopping’
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Shital : I have no problems, At least i will bargain.
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Me : You should get at lease 2000 off on whatever you get.
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Shital : Give me your car keys and your credit card then.
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Me : Prasanth, give shital your car keys and Gupta, give her your credit card.
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Gupta : Tum log, bakwaas band karo aur decide karo , else i am off.
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Sangram : Shital, you will get salary today, why do you need Gupta’s credit card ?
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Me : Yes, shital will be ameer today.
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Suman : Yes, i agree. Shital will me ameer today.
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Sangram : Lets vote for …’Shital will be ameer today’
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Me : Count me in, one vote from my side for that.
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Suman : I agree, One more vote for ‘Shital will be ameer today’
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Gupta : Haramkhoro
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Shital : Go to hell, when you need me, you will come to me.
Gupta offline
Shital offline
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Sangram : I need to go. Weekly team meeting.
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Me : Abe yeh to batao, ki decide kya hua?
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Suman : I agree….yeh to batao ki decide kya hua ?
Me offline
End of chat.
So after two days of email conversations, cafeteria gossips and group chats, we were still undecided. The party is tomorrow. So a gift has to come. The decision has to be made. Its a tough one to make.
Reminds me of the story i once read in school….”The magi, as you know, were wise men–wonderfully wise men–who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi. “.
What i really wonder is, did the magi, what with the wise people they were, did they have the same problems as us.
I wonder….
About the Gift of the Magi……
THE MIRROR 99 