Odisha youth get innovative with birthday gifts. Here’s how

Bhubaneswar: Life is full of never-ending celebrations and festivals. Every month, there comes either a festival or birthdays you just can’t avoid. The initial joy of receiving an invitation gives way to confusion over gifting ideas. While some struggle with choices and end up giving flower bouquets, people in Odisha capital believe in making it special through personal touch.

Santwana Sagnika, a city-based academician, described how her friends surprised her with explosion boxes, rainbow cards and prawn cake, “I am not very fond of sweet edibles, so my best friend prepared a savoury cake (prawn cake). Besides, everyone gifted me one of their best memoirs of life. They danced individually on my favourite tracks too.”

Abhinav Sinha, an engineering student, thinks that there’s no better gift than ‘time’. “Take some time out of your busy schedule and gift it to someone. Talk to them. There’s no better gift than this,” he said.

If your friend is tech-savvy and needs the motivation to take their lazy self out to exercise, gifting fitness band, work out essentials and wireless headphones (since music can always get you going) is a great option. “Health is wealth and I would prefer giving gifts for improving their health, at any time of the day,” said Sourav Mishra, a student.

Surya Mishra, an academician, goes eco-friendly by choosing to gift saplings and paintings/drawings with natural colours. Founder of Bakul Foundation, Sujit Mohapatra, is of the same opinion and encourages saplings and plants as presents. “We have table-top options, too,” he said.

City-based artist Gayatri Muvuru prefers hand-made cards or scented candles, “Hand-made cards show the effort put in and effort matters a lot. And, DIY scented candles are a really cute gift.” 

Mobile phones are an essential part of our day-to-day activities. Gifting a mobile skin with funky/colourful/portrait/floral/movie character prints might just make using the phone some more fun. You can always gift it given you know what phone they use.

Mimansa Pujari takes the seldom trodden path and decides on investing time in making explosion boxes, a gift basket consisting of a lot of tiny things. ” I go for handmade gift most of the time. You find brilliant ideas on DIY (Do it yourself) videos on YouTube,” she said.

Abhishek Patro, another student, prepared a gift he couldn’t give, “My friend likes black roses but I couldn’t find any so I preserved a rose, blackened it and kept it in a bowl with other small glittery things. I couldn’t give it to her though,” he sighed.

Some also recommended on gifting a complete makeover to their friend or loved ones. You can gift a whole different look for your loved one to feel better about themselves. Either get their hair highlighted/coloured or get them facials done for a toned pretty face.

For young Sonali, flowers made of papers and hand-written letters are a gifting option that can never go wrong. “Letters are more intimate and wishing through letters are so beautiful!” she expressed.

Going the ‘Old is Gold’ way, Devnandan Mahapatra said, “Chocolate hamper is the ultimate gift. It has stood the test of time,” and Jay Prakash Swain said, “Books are the best gifts ever.”

People have also been gifting ‘Jar lamps’ which is a jar full of pretty little things lit up with LED bulbs, pets like puppies and kittens, and various accessories of which, earrings though cliche, never go out of fashion. Gifts are special, so choose your gifts as per the nature of that person because you’ll never know how happy it can make them. Happy gifting!