I put on my earphones and played 'Last Christmas' and soon the memories of last Christmas filled up my mind.
It was snowing heavily. The temperature hit the lowest at minus twenty five degrees. You could never tell the time of the day by looking outside, for it was dark most of the time. Winters in Finland were always dark and it was the most depressing time of the year. No wonder, Finns committed the highest number of suicides in the world. We were a small group deputed there for an year and our stay was coming to an end. Before we left, we wanted to make our Christmas a memorable experience. In Rome be a Roman, in Finland be a Finn. We decided to celebrate Christmas the Finnish way.
"Celebrate Christmas in Lapland - Santa's homeland" read the pamphlet I had collected from the tourist office. What better way to make Christmas memorable I wondered. We were in Santa's own land and we definitely had to pay him a visit. In spite of our Finnish colleague laughing at our plans and telling us that the Santa hype was just to make money out of tourists, our enthusiasm did not die. The entire group was looking forward to the trip. To the sleigh rides, snow mobiles, Reindeer, skiing and what not. It seemed to be a complete getaway to a dreamy fantasy land. All of us looked forward to a change from our monotonous world of coding. We browsed the sites for more info and a plan was chalked out on the places we would be visiting. We were trying hard to finish our tasks at hand so that we could take some days off as well.
Unfortunately, there happened to be a sudden turn of events and all our plans of meeting Santa in Lapland had to be canceled. We realized that we could not afford to take a single day off. So it was decided that we would have the usual weekend get together with food and a movie for Christmas too. I was the most disappointed among all of us.
That night, when I entered my studio and started taking off my red jacket an idea struck me. Initially I just shrugged it off aside, but then later on I just took out the cotton roll from inside the cupboard. Some minor adjustments here and there, a little bit of "Ho ho ho!" and lo and behold there stood Santa Claus staring at me. The next day, Santa came up with a list of creative games and filled his sack with goodies for everyone. That evening, everybody had a nice time and told Santa that it was the best Christmas they had ever had. Santa felt more than happy to hear that and posed for snaps with everybody.
As I returned back home from a memorable Christmas, I met little Mikko crying outside my apartment. Mikko and his grandpa stayed on the second floor and they were the only neighbors with whom I socialized. His Grandpa told me that Mikko wanted skating boots for Christmas but Santa told him to wait until next year.
Then he slowly whispered into my ears, "I do not have that much money"
I nodded sympathetically, wished him Merry Christmas and left.
That night, when I entered my studio and started taking off my red jacket another idea struck me. I looked at the money I had kept aside for the Lapland trip. The skating boots cost only half of that amount. I would have blown it away on the trip anyway I wondered. Instead I can make a kid happy. But, I found it a little ironic that being from a developing country, I was doing all this in a developed country. Didn't my country deserve it more than anybody else? I could make several kids happy with the same amount in India. With too many thoughts in my mind and no decision taken yet, I decided to sleep over it.
The next day Santa knocked on Mikko's door with a big parcel. He gave a small peck on Mikko's cheek. Mikko was a little surprised to see Santa a day after Christmas, but all he was interested in was the parcel. As he opened it, he was more than happy to see a pair of skating boots. He hugged Santa and ran towards his Grandpa. By the time Grandpa came to the door, Santa had disappeared.
After an hour, I heard a knock on my door. It hadn't taken Mikko's Grandpa long to figure out Santa's address and the slightest doubt he had, was erased when he saw some cotton roll scattered near my red jacket. He handed over to me a greeting card made by Mikko, smiled at me and left.
I opened it and saw a lovely card. Scrawled in it haphazardly were the words "Joulupukki Kittos Paljon*!!!"
* Thanks a lot Santa Claus
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