One of my most memorable and precious gifts, i have would be that of my friend charles's for my birthdays of 2006 and 2007. I caught up with him in college.I have quite a good love for books. Its partial because i knew of many good books and still i have not read or owned most of them. My tastes are contemporary, close to realism kind of stories, suspense, poetry(tamil),history and a bit of passion.
My collection includes shorts stories by eminent tamil writers,Sidney Sheldon's,Dan Brown's,Self teaching books about computer languages, a french course book,Mehndi designs,Self help,quiz books, A-Z international book of encyclopedias(i saved only H,J,K,B,S,U,V,M other books were lended to (or taken by) stranger when i was small.),beauty tip books ;-)and some misc stuffs.
Among all those gifts some are very personal to me and very special even.One of them is dad's 2004 birthday gift. It was a novel by Sidney Sheldon named as "The stars shine down". Why is it Special? Dad never really gifted me before then, it does not mean that he didnt care for me but all his gift to me were masked by the duty of him being a parent, getting me a good school, good course,good codes of dresses.....above all my atttitude - yes all these are his gift but this book is something materialy,entirely under the name of a gift.So its special and memorable.
And mom's plastic doll (its such a beauty. i named it Kamni) for my 1994's Birthday, my cousins sister handpainted card for new year of 2001,a fur stuffed heart with two open hands asking for a hug, a suprise mickey mouse cake, a few porceline dolls, lot of cards, from my friends circle also end up in the list.
Ah! How come Mr.Charles gift came into this and what is so special about it to be in the list? So here it goes.......
Both of his gift for my birthdays were books. Books i consider to be most lively and gripping when i read it and most likely books that i never wanted to end. The first book , 2007's gift was a collection of contemporary poems by Lycrist Arivumathi under the name "Nattpukaalam"(The Age of Friendship - this would be the most equal poetic translation).He was so wise to find such a book that exactly defined the relationship between us. The book is about a relationship between two people - a guy and a girl who travels in the yellow region between love and friendship.But the end was left to individual's perpective. I suppose we jumped to the friendship side rather than love-good for us. At once there started rumors and gossips about us.But who cares about darkness when there is friend holding a candle for you.
His second gift as i said earlier was also a book. This book was written by Thabu Shanker- one of my favorites.It was titled as "Inipu Ethudu Kollungal - Kadhal piranthirukirathu"(a translation would spoil the title anyway it would be Have a sweet - love has born). I loved this one. The theme of the book is - you may find someone who sparks the love in you,who excites your passion,and above all someone who may be responsible for you discovering the love in you......but it doesn necessarily mean that you should fall in love with them. The thing is that you save the love for someone who GIVES it back to you rather then just being a fantasy.I accepted with it. This time i tried to make my friends understand it because i never wanted such a wonderful relationship being intercepted in a wrong sense. I think they got it.
So college got over, now we are both in the doorsteps of our next chapter in life far apart physically. But the memories we gained are still fresh and time travels to the node where we will spend some more time together. He was such a good friend of mine. So a Gift - whether it may be a keychain that cost a bug or a 100-carat gold plated ring - it is the effort that someone takes in showing the love they have for us.So accept a Gift with love,smile and more of all gratefulness.
P.S - He added 20 mini gifts with his 2006's gift , each one for my birthdays he missed so far until then.
