A Special Gift

It was the younger one’s 5th birthday and she was all excited like any 5 year old. She has marked the date on her calendar months in advance and every day she will tell us the countdown.

“Papa now only 3 months”

“Mama now only 25 days”

“Didi now only 7 days and then it’s my birthday”

A week before the birthday we went to the market to buy her gifts and chocolates to be shared with her friends both in school as well as in the building.

She helped us in selecting the chocolates “Papa 40 kids in my class, then I have Ma’am, I also want to share with my bus friends and also with my friends in the garden…”

I am sure you all get the gist. This was followed by the list to do some shopping. We tried to get gifts that she will not only cherish but also will be educational for her. So a scrabble was bought, followed by another set of colors and clay as she loves to create art. As father as daughter, she wanted a few books also, so we readily got her some as I believe that books and habit to read are the best gift you can give to children.

So on her birthday she went to school all smiles and we were waiting for her to come back in the afternoon. Her school has a tradition that the birthday baby can come in fancy clothes and you need not wear school dress.

When she returned from school she had a fancy dress on her head, it was a beautiful hat made from old newspapers decorated with pink chart paper flowers. It made her look like a Flamenco Dancer and she proudly showed her hat to us.

“Papa my ma’am gave me this hat, she specially made it for me”

I must say we were very impressed by the hat and there are many reasons for this.

• First of all it is a very nice gesture from her teacher to take the pains to make the hat for students.

• Secondly the hat is made from old newspaper hence she is subtly teaching the importance of recycling and environment friendly way of life.

• The teacher also without saying, gave a very important lesson to the kiddo as well as to us, that gifts should come from heart and a gift becomes special if it comes from heart and it really is the thought behind the gift that matters.

It is a very special gift for our special girl from a very special teacher. I must say we took the right decision to send our daughters to this school and I want to thank her teachers for this special gift to our child that teaches her so many things.

Kiddo happily posed with the hat, have a look. What do you say?

Sasha and Prasad Np are proud parents of 2 girls whom they fondly call Princess and Pinkette. He wears many hats after taking a break from being corner office critter for a long time. He is now an entrepreneur, blogger, photographer, traveler and a potential investor in start-ups with unique concepts especially if they are in travel related business. He blogs at Desi Traveler, and can be reached at Facebook and Twitter.