My colleague came to work today wearing a nice slim watch from Titan. Since it looked very new, I asked him if he bought it recently. He said that it was 2 years old, which seemed odd because the watch looked as if it was just taken of the showroom display.
He said that he had gifted it to his Dad 2 years ago, but his Dad had not used it even once
and had left it lying in its original packaging. Since I know that my friend is very chummy
with his parents, there did not seem to be any possibility of his Dad trying to put him down
by not using a gift from him.
Unlike most parents, they have been very supportive of him at all stages of life, been more
like a friend than a parent. And to top it all, when he expressed his intent to marry a girl
that studied with him in Engineering college, they gave the green signal. This, inspite of
them being from different states, speaking different mother tongues and possibly different castes. The only common thread that bound them was that they practiced the same religion.
So, it was intriguing to me as to why such a parent would refuse to wear a gift from his son.
Then my friend mentioned the reason for his Dad not using the watch. It was because the
watch did not have a "seconds" hand. It had only an "hour" hand and a "minutes" hand.
Now, it sounded all the more intriguing to me. A "seconds" hand is sort of dispensable in a
watch for most of us. Who times time by the seconds anyway ? Unless you are using it to
time your microwave cooking or to do a 0-100 run of your car. And anyway, microwaves
come with their own timers. And it is not easy/accurate doing a quick 0-100 run and
timing it simultaneously yourself.
Turns out his Dad is a doctor and needs the "seconds" hand to time the pulse of his patients.
Hmmm. Inspite of the effort he would have put in while selecting the watch, my friend
missed one of the critical requirements of his Dad who would be the recipient of the gift.
Thus, his gift, for which he would have spent money, time & effort, was not really
appreciated by his Dad.
Today, gifting has gone real big. People gift costly stuff like DigiCams, iPods, bikes, cars etc
to their loved ones, including kids. But while we do not hesitate to spend our money, are we really spending that extra effort to know what gift would be appreciated by our loved ones ?
A little effort spent in understanding their needs would go a long way in enhancing the satisfaction of the gift recipient. And which in turn will make you also more happy.
From experience, I have found that kids are the easiest to gift to. You just ask them what
they need and they frankly tell you. They do not think of wanting something and ask for something else like us adults, just because we do not want the person to splurge more dough.
And once they get the gift, they are so happy that it brings a smile to your face everytime
you just think of it.
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