Everyone's Called To The Buffet

Harsh Kabra July 24, 2006 00:00 IST Everyone's Called To The Buffet -0001-11-30T00:00:00+05:53

"It was exasperating," recalls Murali Krishnan, a Chennai-based software engineer. Keen to give his father a meaningful birthday gift, he had scoured numerous stores, but found nothing that reflected his feelings. He then came across True Gifts, a novel gift store where he got something that touched not just his father’s heart but others’ lives as well.

At True Gifts—part of the Bhoomika Trust formed after the Gujarat earthquake in 2001—the gift money is given to an NGO of your choice and you get a voucher that can be presented as a gift. Bhoomika Trust follows up with that NGO to ensure proper use of your money and updates you about it three weeks later. "Bhoomika’s strength lies in linking NGOs, businesses, community-based groups and government," informs programme manager Latha Subramaniam.

Murali’s gift helped meet a month’s expenses of a resident of Adaikalam, a home for mentally ill women, and provide cots and spectacles to the inmates of a residential centre for the aged destitute. "This is your best-ever birthday gift to me," remarked his father....