Gifts from my secret Santa

Most organizations secret santa during Christmas, where in every employee of the organization will get a chit, which will contain his / her secret santa. They need to get a gift for that person during the duration of the game. The gift needs to be placed secretly, so that nobody finds it out, till the finale date.

In Summit office also we played this game of secret santa, 1^st day I got a key chain with a chocolate in the first half of the day, during the second half I got an idol of ganesh ji. People in office were like, lucky guy got 2 gifts on the same day. Even I was wondering who the person was. I knew one thing for sure, that this person knows me well.

I started looking out for my secret santa and the first clue was in the gift wrap, that person’s handwriting. Handwriting was good and the ink used was black, then what, I did a surprise visits to all the desk to check the handwriting and the ink. 5 people were shortlisted but it was difficult to pin point, so waited for the second gift to come.

2^nd gift was a chocolate and a lip balm, in whole office there was only I person who knew that I use lip balm and the brand preferred by me. I started checking his office notebook to verify my doubt, my doubt was kind of confirmed by now but still wanted to take a chance.

3^rd gift told the story it was he only, I got a pen and a thump ring. I don’t like pens with rubber grip, he was the only person who knew about it because I had spent one full day in getting a pen without rubber grip and had told him about it. The pen was without rubber grip.

I was happy that my secret was one of my colleague with whom I spent most of my time in office and we share the same cubicle as well. Before identifying his identity I used to discuss with him my doubts about my secret santa. He used to change his strategy accordingly in terms of placing the gift timings. He knew I have full doubt on him.

But his 4^th gift was beyond my imagination, it was a customized coffee mug. He took picture from my facebook account, selected some best, my family. That mug had pics of my full family, my parent and my wife. All office pals liked the gift and said this person knows you very well and has put in effort and time in gifting it to you.

My secret santa was Anirban, I will call it sheer luck that he got my name.

How safe are India’s metropolitan cities for women?

India is known to the world for its diverse culture, nationals from across the globe come here to witness it. Women in India are worshipped as “Lakshmi (goddess of wealth), Saraswati (goddess of knowledge), Durga, Kali to name a few. It’s shocking to see incidence of violence against women at large scale in India. It’s a shame to India’s diverse culture as well.

Registered rape cases in India are at all-time high. In a week we can easily read 1or 2 rape cases in newspapers. What happened to the victims or the convicts in the case in never told or covered? Reason could new case is ready to focus attention on. Where are we heading toward? When we live in a civilized society, should we not behave in that manner?

I feel rape is an inhuman act which can’t be tolerated in human society. It’s a shame to our society at large. Today’s women has proved to the society that, they are nowhere behind men in any ways. They have conquered all the places which were once held by men only. Despite all these developed they are not treated well. 

Women have to face uncomfortable situation wherever they go, be it workplace, public transport, shopping malls. No place is safe for women, even their home in some situations. What should they do now? Sit at home or be victim to harassments. Rape leaves an unhealing wound to the soul of the victim. It is very difficult for them to come out of it.

Recents case of delhi is the most cruelest to the victim, where she was thrown out of the bus, as if she was a commodity and not human being. Delhi is the capital of India, situation is no different in Banaglore, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkatta and Pune. Women who leave their home early in the morning to earn bread for their family have not surety , that they will reach home safely. These cities are best known of their development and the standard of living it offers to the residents.

Police arrests the convicts and court grants them bail. Despite doing such grievous convicts roam free in the society, adding terror to female population. In think government should come out with some stringent punishment for the convicts in rape cases. The fear of the punishment should deter people from even thinking about it. Until and unless it is brought in practice, rape cases are not going to end. We can read about it every morning.

Only solution to this problem is to implement the same law, which is followed in countries like Saudi Arabia.

Prabhu’s birthday in Summit office

Prabhu our office boy is an integral part of Summit. If he doesn't come to office a day, our life is at toss. Most of us will have to step out of office that day for getting lunch. If Prabhu is there, he will take order from us and deliver it to us by lunch time. He even suggests places from where we can order food and delicacies as well.

At any given point of time we can approach Prabhu and ask him to get what we want in office. He never say to NO to anybody, always takes our requirement with a smile.

It was Prabhu’s birthday last Friday, he came to office in full white dress including shoes, except a black half  coat. The moment I entered office and saw him, it reminded me of filmstar Jeetendra, he used to wear such clothes. I told him the same, then Prabhu told me its his birthday today. After some time, he offered sweets to everyone in office.

During lunch time, someone suggested to buy a gift for Prabhu.  All were ready to contribute and we started thinking about the gift for Prabhu. Deepak (colleague) made a wonderful suggestion that we buy a cake for him and celebrate his birthday. Our discussion concluded in buying a wrist watch with a cake for him. We decided to think about the cake on the basis of the money collected and the cost of the watch.

Collection was done immediately as everybody was ready with the money. All these started post 3 pm. By 5 pm I left office with a colleague (Lokesh) to get the gift. We asked Archana (office admin) to ensure that Prabhu doesn’t leave office before we reach. Luckily we were able to get a watch and a cake for him.

No sooner we reached office we celebrated his birthday and gifted the watch to him. He was too happy as he didn't except any such thing from our end. The smile on his face was more than enough for us.