This New Year,choose from an array of personalised gifts

With only a couple of days to go,as the market gets ready to welcome the New Year,personalised gifts,diaries and calendars remain on top of the shopping list for many. The market is getting to be passe for those who used to look at calendars as something to hang on the walls. While pictures of gods and goddesses still sell,areas like Camp,Fergusson Road and Kalyani Nagar have come up with novel and vibrant themes. “There are the football calendars that cater to fans of EPL clubs such as Manchester United,Chelsea and Arsenal,priced around Rs 300. Every page has eye-catching photographs of famous players,alongside the dateline,” says Saladallu. Also available is the Michael Jackson calendar designed as a tribute to the King of Pop.

“The market is filled with new designs of diaries. For the first time,Indian market is witnessing such varied designs such as the coffee diary or the wine diary where along with the writing space,it provides details about wine or coffee. Equally high in demand is the yoga journal — a diary with different yogic poses on each page with detailed information,” says Prashant Saladallu,manager of a leading chain of bookstores.

The Vedic cosmos diaries have been grabbing eyeballs for the contemporary representation of Gods and Vedic figures. The new additions this time are the motivational diaries classified according to professions. “There is the engineers’ diary,the Krishi diary for farmers,travellers’ diary and special diary for women. While all these are priced from Rs 200-250,we also make customised diaries with photographs of individuals,” says Hemant Jadhav,manager,of a leading stationery trading firm.

Also catching up fast is the trend of personal calendars. “People come to us with a set of photographs — trekking pictures,trips,marriages and so on. But they take time to deliver,” says Sudarshan Karamchandani,another stationer.