Small-Money Givings

Giving a gift is really an art. It takes timing, understanding, intuition, and spontanaeity. It also takes a lot of creativity. And it usually takes a little money, but not much. This page is for taking note of small gifts I found a way to give. It's mostly here because of the stories.

Note that all the gifts are purchased goods/services, not direct cash. The total amount of money given is not very much. But these are the really wonderful, well-thought gifts that break down barriers that money sometimes sets up between you and me.

I reached a point where I forgot to keep track of these small purchases, etc. I think this was a good development, because at the same time I unconsciously increased the frequency of this type of giving. I've tried to recall most of them, because they make for nice little stories.

The conversion averaged Rs. 42.50 = $1.00, so divide these numbers by 50 for rough dollar amounts.



Delhi
(Delhi Post)

Rs. 90 - firecrackers for the hotel staff that had to work during Diwali, the biggest holiday of the year

Rs. 50 - alarm clock for the hotel, for any other guests that had a graduate school entrance exam to wake up for

Rs. 50 - to Sanjay, an almost-too-gone philosopher, for half a drawing of a pond and stimulating conversation


Pune
(Subash Tora Post)
(Subash Tora II Post)
(Pune and Mahabaleshwar Post)

Rs. 40 - developing fee for Subash Tora's copy of our glorious studio photograph

Rs. 185 - mango sweets, then brown bread, then again mango sweets, as gifts for Mira and her family

Rs. 500 - parting gift for Mira et al., given to the housemaid Laxmi as a bonus

Rs. 335 - real cheese, again for Mira et al.

Rs. 15 - assorted communal fruit (/2) while staying with Sarah

Rs. 10 - vegetables for a meal (/2) I cooked for Sarah - the only time in the whole four months that I got to cook my own food

Rs. 100 - 'Foreign National' entrance fee to a Gandhi museum, at an estate where he was imprisoned by the British and his wife died. The 'Indian National' fee was Rs. 2; I thought it was interesting how the times have changed.

Rs. 1 - the only time I gave money to a beggar. These laughing kids were playing 'Let's Moan and Make Faces at the White Walking ATM". I didn't give in, but joked with them and chatted while waiting to use a payphone. Then while on the phone, I accidentally dropped one rupee. A girl quickly grabbed it, with a big victorious grin. While still talking on (shouting into, really) the phone, I gestured to her to give it back. She looked at me; she looked at the coin. She gave it back. I was so amazed, I praised her and returned her well-deserved prize.

map of Pune city - left with Mira

candle made by the folks at Sadhana Village - given to Mira as yet another gift

$80 Dunham Wafflestompers (hi-tech hiking sneakers from America) - to some stranger who stole them from me while I was visiting a temple, having left them at the entrance (with a very apologetic shoekeeper and her nursing infant); in return I kept his worn-down sandals, which lasted me all the way to March.


Gwalior
(Gwalior Post)

Rs. 60 - Zakir Hussain tape, for the musically curious hotel boys

Rs. 40 - blank tape and copying fee, for giving Santosh a tape of the song I made for him, a groove created using his recorded voice

Rs. 35 - earphones for the hotel boys

walkman - for the hotel boys, brought from America but unneeded

disinfecting hand cream - to a more-hygenic-than-me Scottish man (who had just been grabbed and soiled by a bleeding madman)

GRE info packet - to a curious, studious, ambitious, low-caste mathematician on a train


Sadhana Village
(Year-End Post)
(Sadhana Post)

Rs. 200 - developing fee for two dozen pictures I took of and for the folks and the valley

Rs. 60 - blank cassette and adaptor, for giving them a copy of world drumming music, and their own singing and drumming

Rs. 40 - blank cassette, for giving world drumming music to Varun, a visiting 'drum therapist' with the rhythm bug

Rs. 50 - a tape of South Indian rhythm master Vikku Vinayakram, to Amol, a grooving Sadhana boy

Rs. 285 - for chai and snacks at a mountain restaurant, and then a swimming fee and coffee. For New Year's, some of the Sadhana folks wanted to go for a walk up the nearby hills. A party of nine of us set out, with me as leader, and promised to be back for dinner. For some of them this was their biggest excursion of the year, and, as these people really know how to dig the present, it was a grand time. Three of us even went swimming, which was a once-in-a-lifetime happening. The sun set and we walked the 4 km back under an ocean of stars like you rarely see, holding hands and singing comforting songs.

watercolor postcard from Chloe in America - to Sakshi, the wonderful child of Santosh and Siddhi


Darjeeling
(Darjeeling Post)

Rs. 110 - hat and gloves, spun and knitted by Tibetan refugees at the Tibetan Refugee Self-Help Center (because they wouldn't take a donation, only except purchases of their made-from-scratch goods), given to Suraj because he losts his on our trek

Rs. 75 - map of India, to use on the website (Map of Travels); for you!

Rs. 18 - red marker, for the map

Rs. 220 - 100 gm bio-organic Darjeeling tea, from the August 2004 harvest, eventually given away to hotel staff, chai shop pals, etc.

Rs. 85 - 50 gm 'First Flush Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe #1' tea, taken from the teapickers' personal stash, with the money going directly to the teapickers. This is the best of the best. It can brew a strong tea in five seconds - this was demonstrated for me. 'First Flush' and '#1' mean this was the first picking of the year, in April, with the strongest and purest flavor. 'Golden Flowery', 'Super Fine', and 'Tippy' refer to the fact that in this first picking they collect the tiny (and sparse) flowers as well, giving the tea a unique flavor. 'Orange Pekoe' is the kind of bush. This tea came from Happy Valley Tea Estate, which has been completely organic since it was started 150 years; some of the original bushes continue to produce. I eventually gave all this away as well.

Austrian handkerchief - given to a young village woman (see post for excellent story)


Kolkata
(Kolkata Post)

Rs. 500 - to a Kali (wild goddess of destruction) temple, after a thorough and moving puja ceremony, in which I watched small goats get beheaded as a sacrifice (the connection lingers after it is severed)

Rs. 250 - tip to Narendra for reheading my tabla, because a world-class skin and a sweet man deserve more than $6.

Rs. 436 - books. For Babu, 'Mathematical Circles' - a collection of cleverly exciting math topics and puzzles from Russia. For Abhinav, 'Narcissus and Goldmund' by Hermann Hesse.

Rs. 40 - chocolates for the Ghoshal family, as a greeting gift

Rs. 100 - for Jyoti, who came to the city to collect money for her poor village in Orissa

Rs. 60 - developing and shipping of a dozen pictures to the hotel staff

'Scientific American' magazine from the US - to Abhinav


Rishikesh
(Rishikesh Post)

Rs. 70 - to Baba Prakash Nath, a saddhu who played a mean been (used to charm snakes). His daughter's wedding was on Valentine's Day

Rs. 20 - a month's total of continually passing and giving to an old blind man and his wife, who played folk tunes on a flute and drum all day long every day. Giving to street musicians is, to me, a sort of Social Security.

Rs. 80 - an umbrella for Uttam Das

Rs. 30 - fruit offerings to Uttam Das, Saraswati, and Durga

Rs. 10 - incense offering to same

Rs. 15 - three trips to buy bidis, tiny Indian cigarettes for tiny Uttam Das. A matchbox of 40 sticks costs Rs. 1, but the matchsticks are pathetic. I once commented to someone, "It's hard to believe that something that's worth one rupee... could *not* be worth one rupee".

Rs. 500 - to Pankaj, who was going to buy a tampura machine to help his tabla practice trance. This was informally in exchange for our pseudo-lessons.

Rs. 20 - notebook for Aman, Uttam Das' grandson

Rs. 100 - cassette and copying of a recording I did of Uttam Das playing, given as a parting gift

Rs. 90 - developing fee for nice pictures I took of Uttam Das and Swami Shivananda

Rs. 220 - CD-burning fees for copies of bad-ass American music I gave to Pankaj

Rs. 20 - developing fee for Ganga-cleaning pictures for the boys, Mohit and Shiv Kumar

Rs. 30 - potato sacks for plastic collection

Rs. 40 - transportation to and from recycling center, with five full sacks and two boys

Rs. 31 - chai and biscuits for Ganga-cleaning helpers

Rs. 120 - one kg chikkus (delicious Indian fruit) each for Mohit and Shiv Kumar

Rs. 47 - fruit and incense as a parting offering to Uttam Das and Saraswati

Total: Rs. 5407 ($127).

Go read the end of Large-Money Givings for a final financial synopsis.