Giftooo giftu...!

Gone are those days when people were anxious to know what gifts they got. Nowadays its all about hoping that the unwanted gifts don't exceed the storage space at your home.
There are 3 broad categories when it comes to gift 'items':
* Innovative types : Only 5% belong to this category. They know your tastes, they know how usable it is to you, they know that the chances of someone else gifting the same item are slim.
* Ganesha types : If I were Lord Shiva or Vishnu, I would have cursed the entire humanity for how I am ignored when it comes to gift items. A typical conversation of a couple goes about like this:
Husband: We have to go to that wedding in the evening.
Wife: What gift shall we buy?
Husband: Some Ganesha gift item of course.
Wife: (smiling) Of course! (What else?)
65% of the people fall under this category. Ganesha has got great range, he comes in all forms - from the most artistic to highly innovative to funny to absolutely ridiculous. My friend has a collection of over 150 Ganeshas - dancing, playing music, sitting, standing, sleeping, programming - you name it, we have it. So every time someone gives a Ganesha, its mostly the one you already have. Or even worse, you get two pieces of the same variety on the same day.
I love you Ganesha, but bring on the Hanumans, Ayyappas, and Gajalakshmis please!
* Clock types : No occasion is complete without a few unusable clocks being gifted. 40% of the people fall under this category as well.
I am seriously planning to have one of living room walls as a "clock wall" and hang all the clocks that we got, each one set to the time zone of a different country.
Those of you who must be wondering why the percentages are not adding up properly, Its just that I'm weak in maths and also 10% of the people actually gift clocks with Ganesha on them! ;-)
And by the way, If you are not the innovative types when it comes to gifts, better stick to giving cash. You will be really appreciated.
There are many varieties in the cash givers as well and each one may belong to one of more of these categories:
* Anonymous : There will always be a few who do not write their names on the gift covers. May be because they are the "i-don't-want-to-be-discovered-of-giving-so-less" type. The rest belong to the very old thinking that even writing their names on the covers amounts to showing off.
* Cover less Anonymous : Among the gift covers, you will at least find a note given by someone who just slipped it into your hands while offering a handshake. May be these are the ones who paid an unexpected visit, had no gift cover, at the same time did not
wish to go gift less.
* The Plus One Rupee types : They will never ever give you money without a one rupee coin along with the gift amount. One logic I have heard from them is that "plus one" means continual growth. The gift value only has to be 51, 101 and so on.
The funny thing about this is, may be 50 years ago one rupee was still a decent gift amount, now to think of it.. whats the value of a rupee anyways..

So, what have your observations been when it comes to giving and receiving gifts? :-)