“My job, the one for which I am paid, is to write articles for topics given to me, whether they be on the Delphian Oracle or Oracle Advertising. Gimme a system with a perfectly working keyboard and some time and I can spin the kind of article that you want...”, my friend's voice was rather emphatic. Well, he rounded off, “But, just don't ask me to come with you and choose a gift for your kid. That's something I can't do. I just can't help you with that”. He disconnected and I could imagine him shrug his shoulders with that mischievous smile of his very much there on his face.

I walked alone to the gift shop. I have to buy something. I had promised my daughter that I'd buy her a gift if she'd stick to the time table that I had made up for her. Well, I am not going to be that strict as regards following it, but I need to give her a gift to show that promises are to be kept and to encourage her too. Weekend and I am back home... two days to be spent with my family. Two days when I can roam about with friends. Two days when I can watch movies and don't bother waking up early. The moment I reach home (it's night), my little daughter runs up to me and questions me about the 'gift'. I ask her to wait till it's bed-time.

As I get ready to sing her her favourite lullaby (she always wants me to sing four lines of that song), she reminds me of the gift I had promised. “Ok, but lemme first tell you a story, about a gift”. And I tell her, in brief, O.Henry's 'The Gift of the Magi'. I don't mention O.Henry. She is too young to remember those names. I tell her, in a rather dramatic way how the husband sold his watch to get beautiful combs that his wife could use on her lovely hair; and I also told her how the wife had cut off her hair and sold it off to buy a chain for her husband's pocket watch. I could see my daughter's expression turn from that of anxiety to that of sympathy for the couple when she realizes that the secret Christmas gifts that they both had bought had been rendered useless. But when I tell her that both of them were happy and not sad, she is surprised. I explain, like the teacher that I have been, that the gifts that they had bought, though rendered useless, symbolise their love for each other. I tell her that it's not the price or the material value of a gift that matters, it's the love that comes with it which is most important.

And then, before my daughter goes to sleep, I give her the gift I had bought for her, packed neat with colourful papers and with her name neatly written on it. She opens it, her eyes sparkle to find the contents inside and then I sing out that lullaby.

As I move away a few moments later, I take a look back and find her sleeping peacefully, hugging and holding close to her the gift that I had given her...

No, I am not going to say what the gift was; that doesn't matter. I just hope my friend realises that selecting a gift is easy. You just got to have in your heart love- sincere love- for the person for whom you are buying the gift...