Ungift a Gift Voucher

The one burning question in the mind of many people in this internet age simply boils down to this: Is there a socially acceptable time frame before which one can ungift a gift voucher? 

Most often, a gift is not directly between individuals and is more of a group gifting. So the gifter, in this case is actually the one who is procuring a gift voucher. (S)He has to discuss with so many stakeholders each with his/her own agenda of how much to contribute. (S)He then has to decide whether they should buy the voucher first and then ask the co-contributors to pay up or simply demand that the co-contributors pay upfront and then buy the voucher. And for taking up all this headache, one can be sure that the co-contributors would come up with brilliant alternatives, the exact instant after a voucher is procured. But i digress from the burning issue on hand. 

Simply approach this problem from the gifter’s viewpoint. I mean, the gifter goes through a lot of mental stress and agony over procuring a gift voucher from an e-commerce site. Where is the agony you ask? (S)He has to first determine what is the appropriate amount to be gifted in the first place. Once that is done, (s)he has to then decide which site to buy it from - should it be Amazon or should it be Flipkart or Snapdeal or Paytm or eBay or wherever. 

So the gifter has to understand which site the giftee uses more often and then buy the voucher there. How does one find that out when the gift is more of a social obligation, like when the gifter has to attend the wedding of his/her mother’s colleagues son? It is impossible to do that and so, the gifter takes a gamble and buys it from a site that (s)he prefers. 

Then comes the amount. Does one give Rs.101 or 201 or 701? Does the site where the gifter buy the voucher have the correct denomination? If one has to give 251 and the site offers only in multiples of 101, how can you gift 251 - you can only buy for 202 which is lower or 303 which is higher. And in both cases, the ending is not a “1” and so doesn't really qualify as the correct gift amount. 

Somehow the gifter uses all of his/her arithmetic and calculus skills and arrives at the appropriate amount for which the voucher can be bought. And then comes the next problem - the vouchers can be issued in someone’s name (email id) or to self. For social obligation gifting, the gifter rarely knows the giftee's email id. So (s)he gets the voucher to their own id. 

The transaction is then complete and some sites allow the gifter to print it out in some fancy template. Ok, the gifter is all set, attends the event and hands over the voucher. Oh wait, (s)he cannot, because the vouchers come with a password. 

Then starts the next confusion. Should the password for the voucher be written on the printed gift voucher itself? Or can (s)he send it to the giftee separately? If so, how can it be done when the gifter doesn't have the giftee’s number or even email? The gifter takes a risk at this juncture and decides to write it at the back of the printed voucher. 

Finally, the gift is handed over and the gifter heaves a sigh of relief. But some 10-11 months later, there is an email in his/her mailbox from the e-commerce site, alerting him/her that the gift voucher is about to expire in one month or so. Now imagine how frustrated this gifter must feel that all his efforts have just been blindly ignored by the giftee. 

Should the gifter then somehow reach out to the giftee and remind them to use it? Or is it a socially acceptable thing to conclude that since the voucher is about to expire, one can deem that the giftee is not interested or is not going to use the voucher and so, can the gifter use it for his/her own purchase? Can someone solve this burning issue plaguing today’s society?

My first blood donation

Actually it is my second. But that first time (not this first time) was for the father of a colleague of mine, who was having a surgery and required blood. This happened in circa 1998.

This first time happened yesterday (26th May 2009). There was a camp organised at work on Monday and Tuesday. There have been quite a few camps that have taken place on campus and every time, I would think of donating. But I would end up not doing so, under some pretext or the other.

Yesterday, a friend of mine came to my desk and asked if we could go. I guess that was the real push I needed and so I agreed. We went there in the afternoon, but the organisers informed us that they were overbooked for the day. They made an appointment at 2:30 PM on Tuesday.

We went there today on time, but there was still a pretty long line of people. We filled out a form (my father calls such forms as "laedhu form", but that is a different story that I hope to narrate some other time) and waited our turn.

The technician on duty first performed the Specific Gravity test (a.k.a Copper Sulphate test) to determine whether my haemoglobin count was at an acceptable level. You can refer this link from one of WHO's websites for details.

I passed that test and then the Doctor checked my BP. This was also in the standard acceptable range and so I was permitted to donate blood. My turn came up in a few minutes after the Doctor's clearance.

I was asked to lie down on one of the "beds" and then the other technicians got down to business. They gave me a soft rubber ball and asked me to keep squeezing it. Blood was collected from my left hand. After 5 minutes or so, the collection was stopped and they asked me to lie down for a couple of minutes.

Then one person came along and asked me to sit down. After confirming that I was in a steady state, he took me to the recuperation table. I was given a Frooti, asked to help myself to few biscuits and also have a banana. My friend had completed his donation a minute before I did. So, after the official recuperation, we went to the juice shop on campus and helped ourselves to a Dates Milk Shake. Dates was selected since it is considered to be rich in Iron and hence good for blood.

To cut a long (and yet another needless) story short, I did my bit for the society by contributing blood. I have also done enough self-publicity with this post too! And I request you to do what I did - I meant the donation part, not the publicity part.

There are many sites that would give you the necessary information regarding blood donation. The bank to which I donated is this one.


P.S.: In my eagerness to publish this post yesterday, I inadvertently posted it on the InGiliPiece post. My apologies to my fellow-authors of that blog.

Social Networking Quagmire

Honestly, I am a bit swamped with requests to join various websites cultivating a Social Network via the Internet.

A couple of years ago, I was introduced to one such site called Ryze. Sometime last year, I joined the Orkut bandwagon. A few months back my tryst with Facebook started. And somewhere in between I got into Linkedin. There was an invite to join some other site and today, I saw an invite to join Yaari.

And you know the interesting part? I barely have one or two common threads on these sites. Another thing I noticed was that there is a clear demographic separation in terms of the people who invite me to these sites. Most of them are my friends from my previous employer and none of them has invited me on Orkut. They have invited me to join all other networks. Again, is that because they themselves don't belong to Orkut or is it because they don't like Orkut or is it because they don't like to link me on Orkut?

Whatever be the network, I don't think these are really meant for me. I am a bit of a reserved character and so, unless someone contacts me directly, it is highly unlikely that I'd visit these networks to get connected with the individuals. In fact, few people do comment regularly on my Orkut scrapbook and I duly get an email notification. Yet, I don't login promptly to find out what it is. I take my own sweet time to login and respond.

Having said that, I think these sites are useful at some level, coz it did help me to get back in touch with a long lost friend of mine in college. But its just that, I am not cut out to be an active participant on any one of these websites and am baffled by how I would stay in touch with my friends who are profiled in different websites.

So, would someone come up with a new website that would let you integrate all your profiles and present it to you in one site itself? This way I wouldn't have to check each of these sites to see if there are any updates from my friends. I can get the view in one single page itself. Probably someone has already prepared that website and I think I will wait for someone to invite me to that site as well!