'If you have a book [or a commodity] that's been idling away for more than a year...'

Three Lovely Gifts Today | Sweet Musings ❤️

Today, I was really overjoyed to have received three gifts from three lovely people. 😊

Prof. Arun our vibrant APRO, called me up to say that, I had received a lovely little gift from Mrs. Anne Dayanandan.

I promptly and quite eagerly picked up the gift this afternoon from our Department. To my pleasant surprise, it contained Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand.

For those of us not in the know, Tomb of Sand, is the first book written in an Indian language to have been awarded the International Booker Prize. It was translated into English by Daisy Rockwell.

The little bag also had yet another pleasant surprise in store for me. It had a beautiful handwritten note from Mrs. Anne Dayanandan that I’m sure gonna treasure for life. 😊

Quite soon, Dr. David Abraham my sweet brother, brought me a courier cover that was addressed to me. 

He brought the courier gift over to me while we were all sipping a lovely cuppa coffee along with our dynamic, lovely bubbly Head of the Department Dr. Mekala Rajan. 😊

Interestingly, the sender’s vibrant daughter Ms. Benitta was our student both for her UG & PG in English, and I am so proud to note here, that she was one of the few students who had published her MA Project (under my guidance) as a book. You may want to read on Benitta and her book on our past post HERE.

Coming back, 

This courier gift was from one of the doyens of Neithal Literature, Mr. Kurumpanai C. Berlin. It contained three of his vibrant books [written in Tamil] that have been translated into English.

The titles are, Into the Deep Sea, Turbulent Tides, and Tearful Ocean respectively, and translated by Dr. E. James R. Daniel, and Dr. A. Philo Fragrance Serene, and published by New Century Book House (P) Ltd, Chennai.

Dr. James R. Daniel is a renowned bilingual writer, who has to his credit a few books, besides a couple of translation works in English. Dr. Philo Fragrance Serene is the mentee of Dr. James, and she is an acclaimed bilingual translator as well. 

Now for the third little gift that I got today. It was from Abraham, our vibrant student who came all the way to see me, to gift me a lovely box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates, from his first salary. God bless you Abraham. ❤️

I was promptly reminded of yet another lovely book gifted to me by Author Mahalakshmi Raghavan, titled, Kotravai. ❤️

This book was personally recommended to me by a vibrant reader and friend, Dr. P. Jeyappriya, HoD, English, Mother Teresa Women’s University, Kodaikanal, TN.

On an added note, Prof. Aparna [Anna Adarsh College, Chennai] also vouched to the awesomeness of Kotravai and we are just waiting for the right opportunity to discuss the book quite soon! 😊

Well, this post is not to review these five lovely books. (I hope to review each of them shortly, on our blog here).

This post is about the sharing of gifts.

Mrs. Anne Dayanandan, as most MCC-ians might have known, is the founder of our MCC Campus School (1985), which today, is one of the best-known schools in and around Tambaram vicinity. She has a lot of meritorious accomplishments to her credit.

Mrs. Anne Dayanandan is also the first archivist of Madras Christian College! (as told to me by Dr. Joshua Kalpatti, former HoD, Department of Philosophy, MCC, and author of the famous book, Life and Legacy of Madras Christian College).

Mrs. Anne has also written a wonderful article for our College Magazine that’s going to be released shortly. ❤️

Well, Mrs. Anne thought of sharing her unique gifts with the world. Be it the founding of a school, or a very lovely little act of writing an insightful article for the College Magazine, or a very small act of kindness - of writing out a beautiful note that tagged along with the lovely gift.

A gift that she resolved to share!

And that has made all the difference.

A gift that cannot move loses its gift properties,

says Hyde, Lewis Hyde, in his motivational book titled, The Gift.

[You may want to read more on The Gift on our past post HERE]

Robert Macfarlane in his book titled, The Gifts of Reading states that - 

A book was gifted to me by a man called Don, with whom I became friends in Beijing during the autumn and winter of 2000. Don and I were working as English literature teachers in a University,

which included a copy of Snyder’s Mountains and Rivers Without End, and a paperback copy of a book by Patrick Leigh Fermor titled, A Time of Gifts!

Says Macfarlane, Robert Macfarlane on the book –

A Time of Gifts is filled with gifts and acts of giving – it is a book, we might say, that is rich with generosity.

Quite surprisingly, as we all know, today, Robert Macfarlane is known the world over, for his enthralling books on landscape, language, nature, places and people.

However, it was the sweet impact of that one book gifted to him by his friend Don, that had quite turned his life for the better - for a richer and a fuller life! 

Exactly what Lewis Hyde says, about the power of the gift –

Only when the increase of gifts moves with the gift may the accumulated wealth of our spirit continue to grow among us, so that each of us may enter, and be revived by, a vitality beyond his or her solitary powers.

Yes!!!

So let me put it this way, this simple way –

Patrick Leigh Fermor was gifted the first volume of Horace: Odes and Epodes, by his mother, which acted his spontaneous spur and immediate impulse to become one of the best known travel writers from around the world.

Robert Macfarlane was gifted a book on Patrick Leigh Fermor by his friend Don, and titled, A Time of Gifts, which in turn had motivated him to develop an engaging and rewarding relationship with the landscape.

Rufus (me) 😊 was gifted these lovely books by Mrs. Anne Dayanandan, Author Kurumpanai C. Berlin and Author Mahalakshmi Raghavan.

And.... well... the gift moves on and on and on!

I always tell my dear students –

If you have a book or a commodity that’s been idling away for more than a year, please give it to somebody who can make use of it. Please! 😊 

Now to the introspective thought for today –

How have you been using/sharing your gifts?

Or

How often have you been using/sharing your gifts?

Remember, Lewis Hyde says - 

A gift that cannot move loses its gift properties!

If you are a gift yourself, how have you been sharing your gift with the world?

You may have the gift of writing gifted to you!

You may have the gift of painting gifted to you!

You may have the gift of speaking gifted to you!

You may have the gift of singing gifted to you!

You may have the gift of playing musical instruments gifted to you!

Are you using your gifts to the fullest?

Remember,

A gift that cannot move loses its gift properties!

Start sharing your gifts with the world.

Right away at that!

Before it loses it properties! 😊

Bonne chance! 😊

PS: Special congratulations to Gayathri, K for consistently sharing her beautiful gift with the world, every Friday evening for the past many months, as Friday inspirationals  on her YouTube channel, under the Community header. Many have personally told me on WhatsApp, on how valuable and useful these precious thoughts are! Keep up the good work, dear Gayathri. We are so proud of you! 

You may want to look up Gayathri’s YouTube Channel and ‘like, share, subscribe, comment’ on her vlogs and posts HERE.