Kolkata: Chocolates and flowers passé, gifting choices show new ‘pandemic trend’

KOLKATA: Chocolates and flowers are so 2019; oximeters and sanitizers are the ‘new normal’. The Covid pandemic has not only changed the way people celebrate festivals, birthdays and anniversaries but has also upended conventional ideas of gifting.
Instead of sending traditional gifts, friends and family members are gifting each other colourful designer masks, packs of disinfectant wipes, automatic sanitizer dispensers, cellphone sanitisers, steam inhalers, small oxygen cans and even pulse oximeters.

The reason is simple: many of these items come in handy as everyday safety measures, while others could be used if a person is diagnosed with Covid-19.
“It would have been odd, presenting somebody with disinfectants, sanitizer dispensers and pulse oximeters, which are of no use in normal times. But, during this pandemic, these are the things one is most likely to use, so people have realised that these are better gift items for festivals and other occasions,” said Vikas Malani, who gifted a Covid-care hamper to his two sisters as a Rakhi gift.
Even clothes, accessories and perfumes have taken a back seat from being the most preferred gift items, as people are hardly socialising outdoors these days, multiplexes, pubs and amusement parks being shut. As for weddings and other public functions, the government has fixed an upper limit for the number of guests.
Girish Vasandani gifted a pulse oximeter to his 75-year old father-in-law on the latter’s birthday in the first half of July.
“I thought it would be a useful gift. Another reason I gifted him one was because pulse oximeters were fast disappearing from the market, with people going for panic buying,” said Girish, a central Kolkata-based businessman. Within a few days, his father-in-law was diagnosed with Covid-19, and had to be rushed to hospital when he experienced shortness of breath and checked his oxygen saturation level using the device. “It really came in handy and we got time to shift him to hospital. He is cured and back home now,” Girish said.
Simran Chopra and her sister gifted identical designer masks to all members of the family on their brother’s birthday in the latter part of July.
“See, masks are mandatory and people must wear them. We thought it would be a good idea to gift pretty masks to everybody in the family,” said Chopra, a teacher at La Martiniere for Girls.
And nobody is looking a gift horse in the mouth when it comes to Covid-care hampers. “Things like masks, sanitizers, disinfectant wipes, pen and mobile sanitizers and pulse oximeters are the most valuable currently because everybody requires these things. When my sister gifted me an automatic sanitizer dispenser and mobile and pen sanitizers on my birthday on August 1, it made me emotional because those are the things I need the most for my safety,” said Ankush Jaiswal, a chartered accountant.