New Delhi:It is very common practice in Hindu weddings to give gifts or cash enclosed in an envelope to the couple. The cash denominations may vary from Rs. 51 to Rs. 1001.
The extra one rupee is given as a symbol of good omen. However, what Vasai based Suresh Sheth did at his nephew’s wedding will surely be remembered by his nephew’s family for years to come. Being a general store owner, Suresh Sheth gave Rs. 100 and an éclair in an envelope to his nephew.
This came shocking to the nephew’s entire family when they opened the gifts and envelopes. Earlier, they were not able to guess who gave that envelope as there was no name written on it.
However, when they found an éclair instead of a rupee inside it, they were sure it was Suresh Sheth. We got hold of Mr. Sheth in his general store during his lunch time and here’s what he had to say (interview translated from Gujarati).
“See the reason behind giving an éclair is that we general store owners never give change if it’s less than 5 rupees. In fact you won’t even find a single 1 or 2 rupee coin in any store in this locality. We stock and order éclairs, chlormint, happydent, etc. for this very purpose. How else do you think they sell? 1 rupee is synonymous to an éclair for us. In fact, when I reach home and my wife tells me to change, I unknowingly give her an éclair. It’s like this has become my reflex. Somebody utters ‘chutta’ or ‘change’ and my reflex makes me take out an éclair from my pocket,” he said.
“My wife gets so irritated by this that she almost threatened divorce one time. So when I was putting money in the envelope for my nephew Bhadresh’s wedding, my wife told me to put hundred and one rupees. I took out the 100 rupee note and unintentionally, without my conscious knowledge, my hand took out an éclair and put it in the envelope. Now go away from here. My lunch time is over and customers are gathering around,” he added.
Suresh shooed away our reporter as his customers were waiting so we had to end the interview.