by Kaavs

Created on: April 15, 2009

The art of giving gifts.

When I stumbled upon the word "inexpensive gifts you can make", there was an instant rewind in my memory. When my brother and me were about five and six years old, amidst a sunny and extremely hot summer day, we remembered my mom saying, "I miss ice lollies you get back home. The ones that are colored with bright colors. Orange was my favourite." We asked her if she wanted us to run down to the local mart and grab a few ice creams. All she did was nod and say, "No, it's not the same as those packaged and processed ones." With that our thoughts floated on to working up a plan to get ice lollies for her. Of course, we did know if we did find out how to get them, we'd help ourselves to some too!

My mom has a habit of napping at the afternoon. She works very hard for us. God Bless. Sure enough, this was the perfect time for both my brother and me to get our little brains to crack the mystery behind the colourful ice-lollies. As I was the elder one, I had to explain the difference between ice creams and ice lollies to him. "What's the difference?", he'd ask even after my explanations and I would lose my temper instantly.

We watched TV and found the miraculous answer on how to get them! I don't recall which show it was, but they showed how it's easy to make ice-lollies with mango pulp juice. All you had to do was to pour the juice into the ice tray, by carefully placing a strong straw to serve the purpose of the stick to hold it once it's hardened. Then carefully place it in the freezer for an hour or so, Voila! Your custom-made ice lollies were good to melt in your mouth.

At that time, the guy on the show made it look like magic. We didn't waste anytime and got busy with the preparation. The toughest part was to avoid making the slightest of noises preparing it because we know mom slept light. It was tougher still without me having to scold my brother for I was a bossy little brat.

Sure enough, we carefully pulled a chair across to the fridge, because the freezer was too high for our reach. We carefully placed the icetray with very minimal spilling of mango juice on the floor. And waited.

Mom woke up, came to the kitchen to make tea, and asked us,"What were you two upto? Definitely some mischief because you two were awfully quiet." My brother giggled and I elbowed him to shut up.

We were monitoring her so that she doesn't open the freezer till our 'gift' was done. She looked at us suspiciously, but couldn't figure out what we were up to.

I still recall the expression on her face and maybe there was a drop of tear or two (this might have been added to my memory as a drama effect). She was the happiest person when we gave her the ice lollies. We did however gave her the tray because they were to hard to remove, besides the straw we had placed in the center of each slid down to the sides.

However silly it was, till date, this was one of the most memorable gifts we had given my mom. Inexpensive, easy to make and enjoyable too !

The secret behind an inexpensive gift - It's the thought that counts !

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