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Santa's Gift
#WritcoAnthology
Sneha was 25 years old. Her parents, Ram and Kaveri had brought up their only child giving her full freedom to chase her dreams and choose the career of her dreams. She was a journalist with a leading television channel. After doing her post-graduation in Arts, she had taken a post-graduate diploma in journalism before she landed in her present job, in which she had been working for the last 2 years.
Ram was an entrepreneur and had his own restaurant business. Kaveri was a home maker. Ram and Kaveri had given Sneha a year to choose her life-partner. “Aise pyar kiya nahin jaata maa, pyaar tho ho jaatha hain” she told her Mom. They had an agreement that the parents would find a groom for Sneha at the end of one year if she did not find someone with whom she wants to share the rest of her life. Now, though Sneha had this open relationship with her parents, a couple of bitter incidents in her life made her think that men are not reliable. Also, she was of the opinion that once you get married you become selfish, think only about your family first. So her opinion was that marriage is a compromise that makes you a lesser person. She had a close friend from college who had totally changed from the time he met his girlfriend. He had stopped being in touch with Sneha, though she was the one to whom he confided that he had fallen in love with this girl. Now theirs was no relationship like what is shown in ‘Kuch kuch hota hain’ and she was not Kajol. After a few months of finding it difficult to cope up with the moving away of a dear friend, she had moved on with her life. She had other good friends too and those girls had also ceased to keep in touch after their wedding. Hence, this strong opinion against marriage.
But, at heart she was the same 10-year old who wrote her list to Santa before Christmas. She continued that tradition every year, hanged a Christmas star every year and kept a Christmas tree too. Though she was now old enough to know that it was her parents who had left those earrings, new dress, Barbie doll and all that was below the tree when she was in primary school, still she liked to believe in this magic of Santa. Two years back she had written in her list that she wanted to land in this job in her dream TV channel and she got the appointment order a day before Christmas! Now she wrote ‘A suitable boy’ (similar to the title of her favorite Vikram Seth novel) in her list and kept it in the stocking for Santa to read or rather get her.
On Dec 21st, the day when she turned 25, Ram and Kaveri had spoken to her and Ram had told her “Sneha, there is a boy by name Raghav who works as my manager in our restaurant. He has been with me for the last 2 years. He is a gem of a person, has no parents, was brought up by his Uncle and is an honest and sincere guy. I want you to meet him. I think he will be a suitable match for you. I have asked him to meet you on Dec 23rd”. Sneha nodded her head and said “Fine Dad”, when Ram came near her and said “Child, don’t worry. Only if you like him we will go ahead with this proposal, ok?”
So on Dec 23rd, which was a Wednesday, Sneha and Raghav met in a coffee shop. Raghav told her all about himself, how his parents were killed in a road accident when he was 12, how his Uncle had brought him up, how he took up Hotel Management, how his favorite sport was cricket and his other hobbies like listening to music, and teaching and helping under-privileged kids. Sneha was inwardly impressed no doubt, but she did not show it out. She wanted to give some more time to see if all these points Raghav told about himself were real or made up. She agreed to meet him the next day and go with him to a place which he said was special for him.
Raghav picked up Sneha outside her office and they drove down to a small building in a street that was about 5 km from her office. They reached an orphanage and Raghav introduced Sneha to the main person Natarajan there. The way the children rushed to meet him, calling him “Anna Anna…”was truly touching. Mr. Natarajan told Sneha that Raghav and a few of his friends were actively supporting their orphanage for the past 4 years. He played with the kids, taught them Math and Physics and by the time, he turned around to ask Sneha if they could leave, Sneha was also laughing, singing and playing with the kids over there.
It was a well-spent 2 hours there and Sneha was feeling so good. Raghav dropped her back home, met her parents and just before leaving he told Sneha “I am interested in this proposal and would love to have you as my life partner. Feel free to let me know if you are interested too”. Sneha just smiled and said “I like the level-headed person that you are, but I need some time to think about this. Will let you know”. All the myths that she had about marriage seemed to have suddenly got dispelled by this guy.
That night, before going to bed she wrote something and kept in the stocking for Santa. After half an hour, her parents took out that slip of paper and read what their darling daughter had written in that. They found 2 lines – “A suitable boy” and then what was written below by her (dated 24th Dec) brought a smile on their faces “Thank you, dear Santa, for showing me the gift well before the break of dawn”.
Sneha was 25 years old. Her parents, Ram and Kaveri had brought up their only child giving her full freedom to chase her dreams and choose the career of her dreams. She was a journalist with a leading television channel. After doing her post-graduation in Arts, she had taken a post-graduate diploma in journalism before she landed in her present job, in which she had been working for the last 2 years.
Ram was an entrepreneur and had his own restaurant business. Kaveri was a home maker. Ram and Kaveri had given Sneha a year to choose her life-partner. “Aise pyar kiya nahin jaata maa, pyaar tho ho jaatha hain” she told her Mom. They had an agreement that the parents would find a groom for Sneha at the end of one year if she did not find someone with whom she wants to share the rest of her life. Now, though Sneha had this open relationship with her parents, a couple of bitter incidents in her life made her think that men are not reliable. Also, she was of the opinion that once you get married you become selfish, think only about your family first. So her opinion was that marriage is a compromise that makes you a lesser person. She had a close friend from college who had totally changed from the time he met his girlfriend. He had stopped being in touch with Sneha, though she was the one to whom he confided that he had fallen in love with this girl. Now theirs was no relationship like what is shown in ‘Kuch kuch hota hain’ and she was not Kajol. After a few months of finding it difficult to cope up with the moving away of a dear friend, she had moved on with her life. She had other good friends too and those girls had also ceased to keep in touch after their wedding. Hence, this strong opinion against marriage.
But, at heart she was the same 10-year old who wrote her list to Santa before Christmas. She continued that tradition every year, hanged a Christmas star every year and kept a Christmas tree too. Though she was now old enough to know that it was her parents who had left those earrings, new dress, Barbie doll and all that was below the tree when she was in primary school, still she liked to believe in this magic of Santa. Two years back she had written in her list that she wanted to land in this job in her dream TV channel and she got the appointment order a day before Christmas! Now she wrote ‘A suitable boy’ (similar to the title of her favorite Vikram Seth novel) in her list and kept it in the stocking for Santa to read or rather get her.
On Dec 21st, the day when she turned 25, Ram and Kaveri had spoken to her and Ram had told her “Sneha, there is a boy by name Raghav who works as my manager in our restaurant. He has been with me for the last 2 years. He is a gem of a person, has no parents, was brought up by his Uncle and is an honest and sincere guy. I want you to meet him. I think he will be a suitable match for you. I have asked him to meet you on Dec 23rd”. Sneha nodded her head and said “Fine Dad”, when Ram came near her and said “Child, don’t worry. Only if you like him we will go ahead with this proposal, ok?”
So on Dec 23rd, which was a Wednesday, Sneha and Raghav met in a coffee shop. Raghav told her all about himself, how his parents were killed in a road accident when he was 12, how his Uncle had brought him up, how he took up Hotel Management, how his favorite sport was cricket and his other hobbies like listening to music, and teaching and helping under-privileged kids. Sneha was inwardly impressed no doubt, but she did not show it out. She wanted to give some more time to see if all these points Raghav told about himself were real or made up. She agreed to meet him the next day and go with him to a place which he said was special for him.
Raghav picked up Sneha outside her office and they drove down to a small building in a street that was about 5 km from her office. They reached an orphanage and Raghav introduced Sneha to the main person Natarajan there. The way the children rushed to meet him, calling him “Anna Anna…”was truly touching. Mr. Natarajan told Sneha that Raghav and a few of his friends were actively supporting their orphanage for the past 4 years. He played with the kids, taught them Math and Physics and by the time, he turned around to ask Sneha if they could leave, Sneha was also laughing, singing and playing with the kids over there.
It was a well-spent 2 hours there and Sneha was feeling so good. Raghav dropped her back home, met her parents and just before leaving he told Sneha “I am interested in this proposal and would love to have you as my life partner. Feel free to let me know if you are interested too”. Sneha just smiled and said “I like the level-headed person that you are, but I need some time to think about this. Will let you know”. All the myths that she had about marriage seemed to have suddenly got dispelled by this guy.
That night, before going to bed she wrote something and kept in the stocking for Santa. After half an hour, her parents took out that slip of paper and read what their darling daughter had written in that. They found 2 lines – “A suitable boy” and then what was written below by her (dated 24th Dec) brought a smile on their faces “Thank you, dear Santa, for showing me the gift well before the break of dawn”.
