The gift I'd most like to give my parents is a trip abroad together, specifically a holiday in Japan in spring, when the cherry blossom is out. I'm a twenty-seven-year-old nurse from Kathmandu, but I've been working in a hospital in the UK for two years now.
I'd like to give it to them for their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary, which is in about two years' time. That gives me a target to save for, and spring would fit, because their anniversary is in early April.
To make it happen, I'm putting a small amount aside each month into a separate savings account. I'd book flights well in advance to keep the cost down, and I'd plan the whole route myself, so they wouldn't have to worry about anything. I'd also take the time off work and travel with them, partly because neither of them has ever been on a plane, and they'd be nervous on their own.
The reason I want to give them this is that they've spent their whole lives working for us. My father drove a taxi and my mother ran a small tailoring shop, and every rupee they earned went on school fees for me and my brother. They never had a single holiday that wasn't visiting relatives. My father has always loved pictures of Japan, and he once told me he'd seen cherry blossom on a calendar and wished he could see it in real life. I want to make that wish come true, and I also want to spend time with them properly, as adults, after years of living far away.