“It was the only present my dad opened twice”, Saira's family gift carton from London

Saira's father moved to London from Hyderabad in 1971. He hasn't been back to Pakistan since 2019 and probably won't go again. For his 72nd birthday Saira wanted to send him something that wasn't a card, something that would actually take him somewhere.

She ordered a single Sindhri Premium gift carton from our Umarkot collective, addressed to her parents' flat in Wembley, with a printed note that said only "From Sindh, with love." The carton ships with a postcard listing the farmer, the orchard, the picking date, and the UK arrival date.

"My dad is not a sentimental man. He opens presents with one hand on his teacup, like he's signing for a parcel. He opened this one and went completely silent. He read every word on the orchard card before he ate a single mango. He asked me twice who Wajid was, the farmer at Umarkot. He asked where Umarkot is. He asked if Wajid speaks Sindhi."

Saira's mother told her later that her father had taken the postcard to his GP appointment the following Tuesday to show the receptionist, who is from Karachi. "That's the present. The mangoes were a bonus."

What she wants other family-gift buyers to know: "The orchard card is the gift. The mangoes will be eaten in a week. The card sits on the fridge for the rest of the summer. If you're sending a carton to someone older, a parent, a grandparent, that card is what's going to make them cry, in a good way."