Why some gifts are the worst choices

Dec 28, 2012 - Nidhi Sethi

photos: AP

Although it’s the thought that counts when it comes to presents, one thing that most of us can’t ignore is the pile of unwanted gifts at home. It’s that time of the year again when the exchange of gifts is at its peak. And some gifts definitely leave us speechless!

Well there are too many gifts, which one doesn’t like, but one gift that designer Akshat Kalra did quite like yet it turned into the worst gift for him was a key hanger. He says, “It was pretty yet due to space constrains I couldn’t place it hence passed it on to another friend. The friend who gave me the gift got to know about this and he told this other friend about it and it became quite messy. People gift undies, perfumes, soap sets and it makes me wonder can’t I buy my undies or soaps or do I really smell bad that you gift me a perfume?”
Namya D., a college student remembers how a group of friends pooled in to buy her a black handbag that she still hates. “It is in a horrendous shape and has a silver handle. I had to pretend to like it. I never had the courage to carry it. Personal stuff such as bags, perfumes make the worst gifts. I haven’t discarded it so that I always remember that I shouldn’t make the same mistake,” she says.
“Someone gifted me a copy of Five Point Someone a few years back. It was an insult to my taste by gifting me this ‘remarkable piece of work’,” rues Vikas Uniyal, a creative writing student.
Talking of taste, content writer Meera Vashisht found the chocolates she got as a Diwali gift to be very weird. On probing, she realised that the chocolates had expired long ago.
Brand consultant Apar Mathur is mighty pissed with his relatives who more than often gift him decorative items for his house. “Firstly I don’t have my own house here, secondly being a guy I hate it. I got a flower vase once. What the hell would I do with a flower vase, at least give me an ice bucket which would be of any help. So what I usually do is wrap it up and gift it to someone else. Unwanted gifts are basically a chain, they will be forever unwanted.”

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/217009" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-a2ca3668a63157747e4671b5b5996a55" value="form-a2ca3668a63157747e4671b5b5996a55" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80946262" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>