Soft toys, toasters, a sewing machine, bags and a humongous pile of clothes lay in the car trunk of Yogesh Suresh, the organiser of the Gift Caravan initiative with the Bengaluru Creative Circus (BCC), when he arrived at the L81 Cafe in Koramangala in Bengaluru. This was the fourth stop of the Gift Caravan on May 4.
The Gift Caravan travels around Bengaluru, across eight locations beginning at Hebbal and ending at the BCC in Yeshwantpur on the first Saturday of every month. Anyone can come and drop any usable item, from toys to sewing machines and cameras, and they can pick anything that catches their eye from the caravan. Besides clothes, vacuum cleaners, toasters, cameras and old Blackberry phones find space in the caravan, and they also leave the caravan pretty quickly due to high demand.
The initiative began in December 2023 during Christmas.
The route of the Gift Caravan is determined by people reaching out to them on Instagram or WhatsApp.
“Initially, we relied on individual requests, but now we focus on apartments for a more sustainable approach. We simply map out the locations based on where we begin,” Yogesh said.
The inspiration for the Gift Caravan came from Charles Eisenstein’s book ‘Sacred Economics’. “People often hesitate to accept things for free, thinking, ‘Why should I take something without giving?’ Yet, when you do accept freely, your heart is filled with gratitude. The instinctive response is to give in return. This concept forms the essence of reciprocity,” he explained.
The Gift Caravan also focuses on the idea of de-cluttering, waste management and donating, creating a system of opening up resources to people to take things for free.
Srinivas S., a retired naval officer, was among those who participated in the gift swap at Koramangala. “I found a vacuum cleaner. I was hesitant to take it, but Yogesh insisted,” he said. Later, he returned with a box of books authored by John Grisham, Mark Twain and David Baldacci, along with various children’s books. “I wanted to give something back to the caravan,” he said.
The gifts and items that are not taken by anyone from the caravan go into a weekly stall that comes up at BCC. “Any leftover item is displayed at the stall in BCC. If some more items remain, we donate them to orphanages, shelter homes, or individuals in need. Additionally, we maintain an inventory to manage our stock,” Yogesh explained.
Running the Gift Caravan initiative entails various challenges that primarily begin with the need for infrastructure. One of them is spreading the word about the gift system.
