While shaving this
morning I was reminded of a gift Bibha gave me a decade ago. Over the years I
have received many gifts on birthdays, Christmases, anniversaries, parting
days, meeting days and on several unbranded days. How come I was reminded of this one gift from
years ago? The reason was simple, it was that very electric shaver I was using.
When I unwrapped
it, I was surprised and delighted. A good gift must elicit these two emotions.
Though I would
have liked to try one I would not have bought it for myself. Somehow, I had the
notion that manual safety razors do a better job than electric ones. In essence
it was just a status quo bias on my part. It is for the very same reason that
many people including me continued driving a manual car for a long time. It was
just a chance that in 1985 I booked a car in Florida on my holidays and the
hire company gave an automatic car. After a few cautious practice drives in the
huge Hotel’s carpark, I took it out on the roads. I found it much easier to
drive and safer on the road as well. Back from holiday, we exchanged our manual
car with an automatic one. I have not driven a manual car since then.
I wished to
challenge my notion about the electric razors too but it did not make sense to
spend so much money just to try it. As you know one cannot return a razor after
using it even once¤! So, if it were not as good or better than a
manual razor, it would be a waste of money spent. This is a purely utilitarian view.
I do hold this view when I am buying for myself but certainly not when buying a
gift. In my opinion a good gift is one that the recipient would not usually buy
for him/herself and it may be useful but certainly not in a utilitarian way. this
is what produces surprise and delight.
I used the shaver that
very morning on the Christmas day, 2010. it was a smooth shave as good as the razor and
it did the job in less than half the time. I did not have to even wet my hand or
to mess with soapy lather. Since then, I have used it every day, it has been a trouble
free and efficient companion. I wish I had it when I was working, it would have
given me a few more precious minutes to sleep! It is not just a shaver but also
a prolific saver. It had saved a lot of time, money and blood¤¤ too
in the last 10 yrs. And is still going strong.
You see it did
turn out to be a utilitarian gift in the end, but I did not have to pay for the
risk! That made it a perfect gift
¤ Health and safety
regulations
¤¤ bleeding from nicks and cuts
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