Every happy occasion(birthday, anniversary and wedding) brings me a sort of numbness. Of course that is beside the financial numbness that occurs(that’s beside the point). I am unable to decide what to gift. There are numerous issues while gifting a gift.
One time, I decided to gift a Titan watch set on the occasion of my friend’s marriage. The set consisted of two watches, one for the guy and one for the girl. It was a beautiful set and I ensured that it was in working order before purchasing it. A month later, the guy returns from his honeymoon to thank me for the watch. It turns out that the watch had a wash on a beach and was not working despite being waterproof. He was in doubt whether it could actually be a Titan!(ie., till he walked into a showroom)
I was left speechless. I mean we think highly of a brand and it lets you down. (Regardless of the brand) And at the end of the day, you come out looking cheap and embarrassed. Instead if I had presented him a cheap watch with an unknown brand name, I would have looked cheap anyways(along with the glares) but still, it probably might have worked?
Lesson no.1 - no more wristwatches. Instead gift a wall clock. The reputation of a wall clock is another matter when gifted. It suffers from a recycle complex. The wall clock is comparatively cheap(Thanks to China). Except that it is the most gifted gift item. The wall clock is saved with the box, along with the gift wrap. When an invite for the next occasion comes along, there, you already have a neatly packaged gift when you rummage through the list of gifts you received. Unfortunately, one of my friends found the gift he had received and gifted to another friend gifted back to him by a woman friend on his wedding! That’s a very cyclical reputation. Now how did he find that? That’s another interesting story. The clock stopped working! You can guess the turmoil of not finding the warranty information. *He had not included it when gifting it to his friend!
Another birthday. This time, I decided to gift this guy something special for his birthday. He was close to me and I met him everyday. Look whichever way, I can’t afford, but trip over him.
What do I gift him? He has a car which lacks a timepiece. But that is nowadays not a must as you get it in every mobile. It’s amazing how the market for one device can simply change your outlook at another device. Though the watch is now a lifestyle statement, I desisted. That guy was simply crazy about watches and did have a neat collection. Besides, the morbid fear of the earlier incident recurring is another. I didn’t want the incident to occur with this guy as he was too important to me.
I kept searching for a suitable gift. I didn’t leave anything to chance. I considered all possible. The guy already had a telescope and even a long range polaroid. I had a closer look at him. I noticed that he was always in a rush on Thursdays & Fridays and is often unshaven.(Is there a correlation?) I thought why not?
I went to this Phillips showroom and checked out their latest offerings in electric razors.(Again, brands – Guess I am a sucker for brands)They had a good one, simple, neat and cheap. They also provided the recharger and the travel pouch. It even had a pop up moustache trimmer! It was simply a good one for travelers and quite user friendly. The cost sucked at 2800 bucks, but then he was close to me. This was one guy I couldn’t risk antagonizing. That was that and now I had a superb gift ready to be appreciated.
I now see this guy smile back in acknowledgement of the gift* from the mirror.