A viral unboxing video that circulated online showed a single type of goodie bag handed out to foreign journalists and delegates at the recent BRICS summit, featuring items such as a water bottle, coffee mug and fridge magnet.
According to the columnist, that bag was only one of hundreds of different kits distributed to the press, each supposedly customized by the individual journalist through a ‘Make your own goodie bag’ option on the official BRICS portal.
The column notes that the portal imposed a cap on the number of items each reporter could select, but the cap differed from person to person – a well‑known TV anchor was allegedly allowed to choose 32 items, while the author was limited to 16.
The columnist further claims that the menu of items varied by the journalist’s medium: television, digital news, print or influencer. He alleges that influencers were offered premium items such as an “iPhone 19 Pro Max”, a Romanian water purifier and a voucher for a Taj luxury spa, though he frames these examples as part of the satirical tone of the piece.
Describing his own selection, the author says he chose basic grocery staples – 5 kg of fortified rice, three litres of cooking oil, 5 kg of Aashirwad flour, 2 kg each of jaggery, arhar dal, moong dal, rajma and kabuli chana, plus spices and 500 diyas for a local lighting ceremony – filling his quota of 16 items.
Because the items could not fit in a laptop bag, he switched the default bag type to a “pure jute gunny sack” and noted the practical difficulty of hauling a sackful of groceries from the Bharat Mandapam venue.
The piece is presented as a satirical commentary on the government’s distribution of press kits, using the author’s personal experience to lampoon the perceived extravagance and unevenness of the selections.