Love don’t cost a thing

Make big impressions with small-budget gifts this Valentine’s Day.

KARACHI:

For those who avidly celebrate Valentine’s Day each year, the agonising question of ‘what to give’ is an annual quandary which never seems to get solved. Even the couples who feel that their love shouldn’t be limited to just one day, feel pressurised with an onslaught of consumerism and all those scarlet stuffed pieces hanging from every nook and cranny of every store.

With wallets shrinking and prices increasing, here are a few budget-friendly yet romantic and thoughtful gift options for your loved ones that can easily be done even if you’re crunched for time.

1. Apart from being aphrodisiacs, chocolates are the one gift item that nobody can ever go wrong with.And with Lal’s deal of a box of their Valentine specials with a 60 minute Thai foot massage from Raintree Spa priced at Rs1,700, you’re guaranteed a great gift. You can also add a funky t-shirt or two from Stoneage that is giving a cute little denim heart to every customer that shops within the Rs2,000-3,000 range.

2. If you are tech-savvy, make use of Photoshop and create a collage of your favourite romantic or comical moments, print it out, grab a lovely mosaic frame from the Craft Company at Rs1,500 (or any lovely frame that catches your fancy; ‘Framer’ in Lahore has great options) and thaw your loved one’s heart.

3. For the creative lover that can sketch or do wonders with graphics (or grab a friend who you can pester to do this quickly) create a comic strip of your love story or your own ‘jab we met’. Everyone has the capacity to scrawl and doodle — this is the time to really put it to test. Don’t worry about how odd it will look, your failings as an artist will just add more character to this piece of art.

4. Given how Romeo and Rumi merrily coexist in our nation’s psyche, penning a few couplets is not much of a challenge for a region that boasts of poetic greats like Allama Iqbal and Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Again, no matter how lame or bizzare it may sound, you will make your lover smile with this gesture. If you get really lucky, he/she may burst out laughing and afterall they do say ‘laughter is the best gift’. Add a Mahin Hussain red man bookmark at Rs500 with the comic strip to appease the bookie in your partner.

5. For those with patience and the writing bug,transcribe your love story and get it printed on recycled or textured paper. Tie it like a scroll and insert it in a tall bottle. Ask your domestic help to get an empty champagne bottle for you if you don’t want to venture out to Botal (bottle) Gali in Saddar, Karachi.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2012.