Updated: December 13, 2020 4:16:38 pm
Be vocal for locals: Instead of giving in to mindless consumption during gift-giving season, we can spread the joy by supporting struggling small businesses. (Courtesy: Aamir Rabbani)
Having spent nearly a quarter of a century in the United States, I’ve always been reluctant to join in on the horrible, all-consuming vulgarity that is Christmas gift giving.
Cutthroat capitalism and mindless consumerism are the inertia that drives otherwise sane and conscious people to start living and breathing the craziness that Christmas shopping is.
So, I find it strangely wonderful that this year I find myself thinking about the Secret Santa tradition, not with my usual disdain, but as a worthwhile whim, twice. It’s worth it not just for the act of surrender, but also for those whose businesses we can support.
We don’t need to go too far beyond our doors to find out who needs the graces of a Secret Saint. Touching each of our lives are women and men who are doing their best to keep life together as they knew it in March. Many are being ripped apart in ways we can never understand, and they face unpleasant realities that have even more unpleasant repercussions. Unemployment, hunger, homelessness, suicide, and depression abound. These challenging times pose questions with no easy answers.
In these times of endless uncertainty and tragedy, we need Secret Santa. We need to give gifts to others, anonymously, generously and continuously. We need to cheer, surprise and delight each other as often and as much as we can.
The pandemic has destroyed both livelihoods and lives. He has closed businesses that supported minds and bodies, giving jobs and hope. It has brought stress and uncertainty much closer than before.
My apprentice Vardaan Marwah made peace with the uncertainty of the hotel industry during the pandemic. Rather than wait for his old job to return, this 26-year-old New Delhi-born chef quit his job without a license after five months of waiting and started his own bakery from the comfort and challenge of his home. Starting with a handful of items, you now accept custom orders and larger matters. His Instagram username @Glazefactory is very popular with connoisseurs. This is a small business that should be your bakery of choice rather than the teams that are part of larger corporations. Supporting your small establishment offers you personalized delicacies and novel discoveries of flavors, textures and flavors.
For my birthday I cut Vardaan’s tiramisu cake, which was better than any tiramisu I’ve ever eaten. Their chicken quiche, mango cheesecake, chewy chocolate chip cookies, and tasty veggie patties also deliver more than expected.
Before the pandemic broke out, Aamir Rabbani, 28, was the lead visual artist for one of India’s leading printers. While Vardaan found his job without work, Aamir decided to leave a stable income and a familiar work environment to pursue his passions.
Aamir’s work has a refined sensibility that is both old world and youthful like him. His artistic creations range from landscapes and still life to paintings of moments that haunt us in the here and now.
India is at that point in history where a person does not need to hide their identity if they choose not to. Queer artists face more adversity in life than their heterosexual counterparts. Aamir’s art visually shares what most of us cannot verbalize out of fear or simply a lack of vocabulary. Through color, strokes and shape, it shapes what we all see and feel, what we think and want to say, but are too afraid or simply unable to express.
Aamir’s website provides a very quick introduction to his unmatched strengths as an artist and his vast repertoire. True to his artistic personality, selling his work is not his driving force. As a vocational art director, he strives to keep his life afloat, and when this workday is over, he brings the real Aamir to life. For my mother’s birthday, I bought one of her first watercolors and now it will be a pleasure for her and everyone who visits her. That purchase will give Aamir the ability to continue creating beauty to inspire us and stay inspired.
Vardaan, a culinary artist, and Aamir, a visual artist, are two of several people I’ve reached out to while looking for local businesses to support. I hope you go to them and also find others whom you can cheer on in their new ventures during the Christmas season.
If each of us can become a Secret Santa and support local artists, home chefs, small restaurants, and businesses, we can help keep our neighborhoods, communities, cities, countries, and our world happier and more civilized, despite the turmoil caused by the coronavirus. .
Think, act, influence, give and support locally by inspiring, engaging, giving and connecting globally.
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