Of gifts and gab

Musharraf must be a happy general. Because each time he comes to India with the objective to set a “later date” for the settlement of “complex issues”, he goes back with a truck load of gifts from different quarters and places – he also got one from Hyderabad. As part of this “ongoing gift exchange programme”, this time round Manmohan Singh gifted him his birth certificate and also of his siblings. In addition to this he received a picture of the Neharwali Haveli and God knows what all from whom. Mr Prez also gifted Advani some pictures of the later’s school.
So what did Mush do in India for “peace” in subcontinent? He watched a cricket match, met Bollywood siren Rani Mukherjee, visited the Ajmer Sharif (there also he received gifts), had Indian food, and at the end participated in a 2hr-40 minutes discussion with Manmohan Singh on fixing a “later date” for further discussions. All in a day’s “work”!!!
And in between all this he also got written about by Indian media, which went berserk in finding about his favourite delicacies. But apart from the Idlis and Dosas, they forgot to include the “Kashmiri Palao”, which Mush has been eying for a long time.
Now this shows how gifts can work wonders for somebody’s profile. And who else can vouch for that than Mumbai’s two dabbawallas who stole free passes to Charles-Camilla wedding beating even the best of socialites of our country. Again their gifts did the trick for them. They sent the gifts in time and got the invitations in return. And as always they too had their fifteen seconds of fame (actually more than that) - being clicked by media from while they were packing their bags to the time they reached the airport. And quite rightly, they sported the victory signs for the cameras outside the airport. It was a victory for them and also for the gifts that they had fully selected. And now since they have attained a cult status, may be a Munnabhai Dabbawala or a Dabbawala No 1 movie title is not far off. Is any producer listening?