Surprise your loved ones by Offering Happiness

Arju Lohani had not had a chance to celebrate a festival with her brother for eight years. But when in 2017 her broth­er, based in the US, finally visited her in Kathmandu, he ensured that he made up for lost time.“I was so surprised. In an apart­ment that had been booked, each room had been set up to celebrate a unique festival,” Lohani recalls. Her family celebrated Dashain in one room, putting tika, surround­ed by kites. In another, they cel­ebrated Tihar with the room lit with diyo. In yet another room, she tied rakhi on her brother’s arm. In the fourth room, she celebrated her birthday. “It felt like I had not missed any special occasion with him in all those years,” she says.

“Offering Happiness” had planned this surprise with her brother. They had even contacted her friends abroad so that she got video messages from those afar. Lohani was so happy with their service that she later threw sep­arate birthday surprises for her cousin and a friend via Offering Happiness. “Their good point is that they take feedback and stay in touch,” she says.

Giving clients these tailor-made experiences is the unique selling point of Offering Happiness. Estab­lished three years ago, they have already had 10,000 customers, and the number is growing by at least five a day. A group of college friends started working on the idea at the end of 2016. Initially opened as a surprise gift delivery company, they have now evolved into cura­tors of truly memorable moments. Their customers are mainly expats and working professionals who are too busy to plan and execute a surprise.

One such customers is Dibyesh Giri who first took their services on Mother’s Day in 2017. He had been traveling for work and had forgot­ten that Mother’s Day fell on one of those travel days. At around 4 pm, when he opened Facebook, he saw Mother’s Day posts from his friends and contacted Offering Happiness immediately. The company sug­gested what he could gift his moth­er. By 9 pm, he had received a call from his mother thanking him for the surprise. “If I had not come across them, I would have had to call my friends, who might have been busy themselves,” he says.

Giri also planned a surprise for politician Gagan Thapa by coordi­nating with his wife Dr Anjana KC Thapa. “Thankfully, I was planning the surprise with ‘Offering Happi­ness’. While researching Gagan’s birthday, they found that Anjana’s birthday falls on the same day,” he says. So, they came up with a gift for the couple. “The whole process was completely has­sle-free,” says Giri.

Another happy customer is Dee­pa Pradhan who surprised her hus­band Pranav Hora on Father’s Day this year. “Our baby had not even turned one so I was too busy to plan a surprise on Father’s Day. Pranav loves children and this was the first time he would be celebrat­ing Father’s Day, as a father,” says Pradhan. But she had no time to even step out of the house. It was then that she came across an ad of Offering Happiness on Facebook, and with just a simple bank trans­fer, the surprise for her husband was ready. Yet there was still some last-minute hassle.

“I had ordered a cake for the day but then the order somehow got cancelled. I came to know that only on the big day,” Pradhan recalls. She then called Offering Happiness and by 4 pm, a cake and a small gift had also arrived. “They are people who care and ensure that the surprise goes down well,” she says. A hanging gallery was read­ied, decorations completed and a cake arrived without her having to do anything. “My husband and family were so happy. Even though I had to spend some money for the experience, my family’s reaction and that day’s memories are really priceless,” she says.

One of the big challenges for Offering Happiness is coming up with new and creative ideas for surprises every day, says Niraj Kafle, one of the company’s two co-founders. Geography is another challenge, he says. For now, you can only get their services within Kathmandu valley.

They have an interesting story about how they first experimented with ideas. Santosh Pandey, anoth­er co-founder, explains that in Feb­ruary 2017, one of their friend’s girlfriend was coming to Nepal after three years, for a month. So they planned a surprise for her each day of her stay in Nepal. “We loved executing the surprises,” says Paudel. Soon, word spread about their surprise and they real­ized people liked these experiences more than gifts. Now, you can find a wide range of experiences to buy on their website. They also custom­ize these experiences by personally speaking with their clients.

For most experiences, they have built-in systems and all they do is the final quality check. Even in their busiest month of February, when they get around 100 orders a day on Valentine’s week, they still send someone to ensure every­thing goes smoothly on each order.

Offering Happiness has thus far partnered with 40 restaurants, 50 balloon vendors, and numer­ous gift-making companies. Paudel reveals that their enterprise creates business for 100 people a month.

With Christmas on the way, they are excited about a new plan. Last year, they sent “Happiness San­ta” to many homes and children loved it. This year, they will try “Secret Santa”.

Fancy a surprise-bearing-San­ta for your loved ones this Christmas?