Thoughtful Gifts

She had made many friends at the new school she had joined a year ago. Two of the girls had become her constant companions during school breaks, they had common interests and laughed together a lot.

On her 16th birthday, one of them gave her a box full of homemade cupcakes and the other, a box full of homemade brownies. They had taken a couple of hours out of a busy school schedule and done the baking themselves. The two girls had also put together a snapshot of their favourite things — movies, sitcoms, jokes and so on. A large laminated frame that would stand testimony to their fun talks, giggles and so many memorable moments at 11thgrade.

My niece was touched by the gifts.

A year back, she had had to move to Mumbai India from the UAE, where she had spent her entire life. Life was different in Mumbai and not necessarily better. Coming from the sanitized environment of a clean city, air conditioned home and school, silky smooth roads, Mumbai was something of a culture shock with hot and dusty, crowded and noisy, bumpy roads and auto rickshaws.

Admission in one of the oldest and best schools in the neighbourhood was a breeze for the bright girl. To her credit, she sportingly adjusted to the new life quickly, allowing grumpiness to get the better of her only on the worst of days.

Adjusting to the teachers and classmates and understanding people and behaviour, was another task. The initial days saw her family at the receiving end of streams of complaints about everyone she met. “The teachers here are strict, the teachers in my earlier school were very loving”. “Some of the girls are so funny [said with a wrinkled nose]..I can’t understand them..” And so on….As she became comfortable with her new classmates, she would sing praises of her earlier school highly, risking being teased endlessly for being a ‘desh drohi’ [one who is not faithful to the land one lives in] & a ‘Dubaiyya”[someone who can live only in Dubai]!

She had had many ‘best friends’ before and had received many gifts too. This was the first time someone had put in so much thought, effort and time to ‘make’ something special! The gesture showed that they cared, more than any gift could have.

Little did the girls know that their gesture was more than a birthday gift. They had helped their friend feel at home in a new city.

On her 16th birthday, one of them gave her a box full of homemade cupcakes and the other, a box full of homemade brownies. They had taken a couple of hours out of a busy school schedule and done the baking themselves. The two girls had also put together a snapshot of their favourite things — movies, sitcoms, jokes and so on. A large laminated frame that would stand testimony to their fun talks, giggles and so many memorable moments at 11th grade.

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Originally published in 2015