A cheap gift that gave me valuable Love lessons. PART- 1

So it was one of those really lazy Sundays, we didn’t want to get up .. it was a cozy room with little light and the fuzzy temperature made it impossible for us to start the day. Lying in our pajamas, talking about the most random things in our childhood. He told me about how he had a wide collection of books growing up and yet now he finds it so tough to read even one book consistently….
I told him about how I used to borrow books from a friend coz my mom thought reading school books were more important…

One childhood story after another… our day was starting really slow….

The conversations were same but we had now moved to the kitchen. Sipping tea, sitting on the kitchen slab, while he made us breakfast,

It must have been sometime then that I told him this story of a particular pencil box that had captivated everyone in our class in fourth grade. A story I remember so vividly…

One day a classmate in 4th grade got a beautiful pencil box. It was a love at first sight for me. It had the most amazing contraption of push buttons that opened secret compartments. It had the faces of all the latest cartoons at the time and how I absolutely loved loved loved that pencil box.. But so did everyone in the class too I guess..

The girl who owned it soon got irritated of all the attention it was getting by people constantly pushing those buttons. She became so possessive and would never let me play with that box. For months if not more I dreamt of having it. Thinking of what all I’d put in each compartment and how I’d write my name on it with a glitter pen.

But I never could. Coz well, parents didn’t buy me one. or maybe they couldn’t find a shop that sold similar ones. There was no amazon to the rescue those days you know….

Anyways… I told him how I had fallen so much in love with it… more so coz I couldn’t have it. And even today if I could find a box like that, Id definitely buy it. He being the smarter one reminded me I’m a grown ass 29 year old now… and that I don’t go to school or own colorful pens anymore.

“Well, I don’t care!” I said. “I’d buy pens just to keep it in my box” We both laughed.

And that is the end of this Sunday story. I didn’t think much of it, it was me rambling just like I do. It was just one of the 1000 stories I tell him each day… Pointless and without sense.

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.

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Well,

Fast forward to a year later. It was around Christmas, and we decided that this year we will exchange gifts. We also put each other on a budget just to keep the guilt under control. I asked him how much should we be allowed to spend? And like always he didn’t bother to answer… he was browsing something over his phone lost in the parallel world, no shitts given. I kept on asking and his answers were hmmm… Whatever… Dekh le… and finally after me screaming at him, he said… Arre anything below 10K.

I knew exactly what I was gonna buy. The perks of knowing someone for more that decade I would say. I ordered his gift (A recording mic) in just a few minutes. And I gave him a smirk, to try to show off how well I knew him and how quickly I ordered him a gift. But he definitely didn’t care. He was smiling himself. “what happened?” I asked.

Well, Nothing much just ordered you the best gift. and whatever you buy for me won’t match. So you lose.
Yes, we’re kids to compete like that. I was so affected by this snide comment that i instantly started wondering if i had made a quick mistake to buy the mic. But it was done already…

So I let it go. We decided to surprise each other when the gift arrives..

Abhinav did do a great job to hype up his gift…. telling me he somehow just managed to fit it under 10K…. that it had tiny diamonds on it… and that it was going to top every other gift we gave each other and that it was super luxurious….. I couldn’t for the life of me, guess what he had got me. I literally spent days pestering him to show what it was or when was it arriving. Also spent days thinking i had been a miser to buy a gift just for 6000 when i could have spent the 4000 in the budget too for a better gift.

Well, accepting defeat I gave him his gift first.. wondering if he would like it at all… but he did. In fact more than i had hoped. So it was a great gift in the end. But i hadn’t opened my gift and he suddenly had his doubts.

He said babe sorry my gift isn’t this nice. I was just bluffing. He gave me a cardboard box, and said, I hope you like this stupid gift. If not i’ll buy you another more expensive one, don’t be mad.

But you said it was worth 10k right?

Umm…. Actually no. It is worth 500 rupees.

Wait, Whaaaaattt????

You bought a 500 rupee gift and hyped that it had diamonds?? I was already mad.

I angrily ripped apart the cardboard and saw a glimpse of my “cheap gift”

I instantly knew what it was. I was so touched that i couldn’t even open it completely before I hugged him. I was weirdly emotional and didn’t even open it for the next 10 mins since i kept hugging him.

It was indeed the Perfect Gift.

Story continued in part 2….