Passing the Parcel

In North India, Diwali time is the time for exchanging gifts of sweets with your neighbours, friends and relatives. It is  “Soan Papdi  time” for the annual passing the parcel festival gifting game.  We all have played this game as kids during birthday parties and even as adults in parties where participants were asked to indulge in various activities, which commenced as  reciting nursery rhymes as kids or singing a song or mimicking someone, to naughty pranks as adults. But the parcel full of slips would eventually end up empty as the game came to an interesting end, with all participants mighty amused and happy.  But alas it is not the same for the poor Soan Papdi,  yes it is a poor cousin with “Kaju Barfi”,  “Doda Barfi” “Dry fruit Barfi” etc being the ‘haves’, the divide is quite pronounced and is evident even in its mode of  delivery with Soan Papdi doing the rounds on two wheelers primarily, while the ‘haves’ naturally do not venture below a convertible. But  the moot question is why is it receiving such a shoddy treatment, after all this too is just another  gram flour based flaky sweetmeat normally cut into cubes, with a long shelf life conducive for industrial production, hence availability is in millions of tons. Its easy availability has turned it into a "non performing asset", which also suffers from the ignominy of turning up like bad penny,  the moment you think you have got rid of yours, another one will end up at your doorstep. In fact these days there are plenty of memes on social media doing the rounds with poor Soan papdi at the receiving end. Many of us have switched to dry fruits packets as gifts although they too can be passed around but there are chances that at least some will find refuge in some households. Incidentally it's a huge business, no not the gifts per se, which is obvious, even gift packing also. As shops prefer to outsource this cumbersome task as they can then multiply their inventory manifold.

Similarly during weddings there are gifts exchanged by close relatives where normally clothes are gifted by the close relatives on the maternal side, something which was eagerly awaited in the bygone era when these clothes were stitched up and used for a number of years proudly declaring their source of origin. But today with the easy availability of ready made garments, tailors are practically out of business and hence  pieces of ready to stitch clothes also land up with a similar fate as that of the poor soan papdi. The clothes are retained in their packing as it is to be handed over at the next wedding. In fact so much so that when people go to shops to buy such items in bulk, there is a term  in Hindi associated with it , “Lene Dene ke kapde”, which means clothes bought for the specific purpose of gifting only. in other words not to be worn.

These days the streets are full of people crisscrossing the city, pollution and smog can wait, gifting during Diwali can not be compromised. People like ants can be seen  carrying boxes full of sweets, dry fruits and other gift packs for delivery dutifully; mind you the list  itself is painstakingly prepared, as to who all had reciprocated last time in what measure as this "give and take" must adhere to the propriety of the protocol. Soan Papdi figures as the most gifted during this festive season, unfortunately this box of sweets is just passed around with no one  keen to consume it. By the way passing the buck is the favourite sport of our venerated politicians. I often wonder where do these packets finally land up, I presume these end up with the maids, gardeners, drivers and the security guards, which in a way is quite a Happy Diwali as at least in this manner, there is some giving away which most of us are loathe to doing otherwise.