A LESSON LEARNT!

Its DAY 12 of the ‪#‎100sareepact for me! Thank you so much Anju Maudgal Kadam, Ally Matthan and Sudha Sekhar for including all of us in your lovely journey!
Today, I’m wearing a pale, sea green Chiffon saree with Lucknow Chikkan work all over ! Its a gift from one of my colleagues at School and there’s an interesting story behind it!
Two of my colleagues at School, quite unintentionally, brought me IDENTICAL sarees from India as gifts! They were both Lucknow Chikkan Sarees in this lovely shade of pale, sea green; but one was cotton and the other was chiffon.
I decided to keep the chiffon one and gifted the cotton one to a young Teacher, in another section, who had perfect accessories in that same shade. Delighted, she wore it to the End Of The Term Party, at School the following week.
But then, I noticed the other Teachers in the Staff Room, eyeing me strangely and I wondered why, till a friend, one day braced up enough courage and said:
“Barbara, can I ask you something?Did you gift “G” ( the young Teacher mentined above) a saree that “F” gave you?
The light bulb went on and I now knew the reason for the strange looks! What transpired was this:
“F” noticed “G” loking very pretty at the party and complimented her. ” G ” told her she got it from me as an Easter Gift the previous week. “F” was shocked that I would ever do such a thing, since she brought this for me, with so much love,, all the way from India! “G” was devastated too and wondered why on earth I would ever do a thing like this!
Phew! I can tell you that I had a lot of ruffled feathers to smooth then and a lot of explaining and damage control to do till those two girls forgave me and would even speak to me again!
I learnt my lesson alright: NEVER LET YOUR GENEROSITY EXCEED YOUR GOOD, OLD, PLAIN COMMON-SENSE! Amen and Amen!

NAME: Barbara Ann John