Diwali an opportunity to express gratitude

MANJU GUPTA

It’s that time of the year again — the season to clean up closets, almirahs, box beds or wherever else you had stored, wrap them and get them ready. It’s Diwali after all and everyone gets a new outfit, including past presents!

Culturally, Diwali has been seen as an opportunity to express gratitude to people who matter, a sentiment which was conveyed by exchanging gifts. Over the years, gifting has gone beyond following tradition. It has become a way to flaunt one’s eclectic taste, appease top officials and foster contacts to enhance business...and get rid of unwanted presents of the past.

The last motive, although the most irksome, is the most harmless. Everyone gets their share of useless gifts. Like in a game of passing the parcel, these gifts spend their entire life exchanging hands, are never put to use and are just pass from one household to another. They stay in motion till the music stops and they look too old and worn out to be re-gifted.

Every household has its way of dealing with these space-occupying lesions. Non-perishable goods are separated from the perishable ones and stowed for “recycling”.

This is an encumbrance because these take up valuable storage space. The easiest way to put such items out of circulation and stop this state of perpetual motion is by changing their orbit. Launch these into a lower rung of society and these will come to rest. So the vase that looks too flashy to gel with your home decor can become a conversation starter in your maid’s home. 

A bigger problem is the increasing trend of using Diwali gifts as a style statement. This “competitive gifting” is the other end of the spectrum of cheap thoughtless gifts — carefully chosen gifts to epitomise one’s aesthetics and social position. Kalamata olives, gherkins, macaroons, macadamia nuts, Marcona almonds have nothing to do with Diwali and everything to do with declaring one’s social standing.

Gifting is thus reduced to branding, a type of gift casteism. If bragging was the only fallout, it could be excused. But it also encourages wasteful spending in a needless game of upmanship.

A recent happy trend in this stratum of society is the arrival of the “evolved consumer” — those who buy gifts from organisations that work with the less-privileged sections of society. 

The trend of gifting with an ulterior motive is much more devious. Presents and hospitality have always been culturally accepted in emerging markets such as India. However, there is a paradigm shift wherein these are used to buy loyalty. This is prevalent across the entire business ecosystem. Diwali gifts are used as bait to tempt employees, customers, vendors and other stakeholders.

But the most sinister development is using this occasion to give high-value gifts (gold coins, international trips and expensive gadgets) to people in position of power with the aim to secure favours and further business interests.

The unspoken question is: Are we using Diwali as an excuse to gift wrap bribes? Compliance professionals say the answer is simple. The motive behind the gift determines whether it is a bribe or not, irrespective of its pecuniary value. To avoid ‘festivities’ from being misconstrued as bribe, corporates should ensure that gifts made to public officials are reasonable, infrequent, appropriate, of nominal value and are not given with an intent to influence.

Gifting needn’t be so complicated. As children, we would carry cloth napkin-covered ‘thalis’ of homemade goodies to neighbours and friends’ houses. A gesture that would be returned in equal measure after the evening was spent amid laughter and animated conversation.

In this fast-paced age of consumerism, we tend to forget that the greater purpose of exchanging gifts was to meet and rejoice with family and friends. This Diwali, let’s do it the old way...let’s shift the gift off-centre.

  (The writer is a gynaecologist based at Gharaunda)