THE UNWRAPPED GIFTS

 



“A wonderful gift may not be wrapped as you expect.”

Jonathan Lockwood Hule

 

I don’t wear any gold, not even my engagement and wedding rings. It doesn’t make me less-committed to my marriage and my life-partner. However, I admire others who wear gold and precious stones…

Need I feel less-decorated?

Likewise, I do not wear a watch. It doesn’t make me less-respectful for time or my appointments. Again, I admire others wearing beautiful watches…

Need I feel less-modern?

Ditto about pens. So often, some of my well-wishers have gifted me fine, expensive pens. I have never used any of them… My shirt- pocket either doesn’t carry any pen, or carries a 5-rupee ball pen!

Need I feel inferior as a writer or teacher or whatever?

The finest pens, which I, often, receive from some of my well-wishers, go around to the those who, I think, deserve them… When I see them using those pens, I feel extremely happy… Yes, I know, that it would break my well-wishers’ hearts if they learn about what I do with their heart-felt gifts!

But, that’s how it is in my life - when it comes to gold, watches and pens… They come with love; they go with love…

And, invariably, they go with love, unwrapped!





So, this Post is about the gifts that come to us - or go from us - with lots of love – but, unwrapped.

I think, only our nearest and the dearest ones can give us unwrapped gifts. Likewise, we can give gifts unwrapped only to our nearest and dearest ones… Incidentally, they are the gifts the recipients  ‘deserve’… They are precious, priceless!

Kahlil Gibran says:

“And there are those who give with joy,

and that joy is their reward

And, there are those who give with pain,

and that pain is their baptism.”

 

In the film ‘3 Idiots’, the pen -  the prized possession of Virus - Viru Sahastrabuddhe (Boman Irani) – in the end, goes to the student who he, all along, thought was an idiot. Rancho (Aamir Khan) ends up receiving this most precious gift – yes, unwrapped!

In ‘Shakti’, there is this scene: Roma (Smita Patil), who has conceived a child through a live-in relationship with Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan), has come to meet – and seek blessings from - his parents (Rakhee and Dilip Kumar) for the first time… She is extremely sincere, but seems anxious and apprehensive about the reaction from her man’s parents… It’s a tense scene… Vijay’s parents look shocked… But, quickly, they accept the situation… The next thing we see is, that Vijay’s mother opens the cupboard, pulls out a gold chain – probably the Mangal sutra– from her jewelry box and sanctifies her son’s wedlock by placing it around her daughter-in-law’s neck… “Vijay’s father had placed it around me,” she says gently, looking intimately at her husband… “Yaad hai na?”

It was an unwrapped gift, straight from the heart… Only the nearest and the dearest can give – or receive – such a gift…

It’s real gold!




 

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic’s: 1. www.youtube.com 2. www.istockphoto.com

Video: MUIS Singapore

 

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