My mom had promised to gift
me a gold ring with my birthstone when I turn eighteen. It was one of my long
standing wishes to have a ring with a stone on it. The day I turned 18, I
promptly took the opportunity and headed to one of the jewellery shops named
after a legendary Titan in my small home town of Changanacherry.
The shop owner knew me very
well and received me with great joy and listened to my need to get the ring
with my birthstone. I had done a bit of research before heading to buy the ring
with the stone. As strange as it might sound today, those were the pre-Google
era where people had to ask others to get the required information. I was aware
of my birthstone as Aquamarine which was supposed to have a marine blue sheen.The owner asked me a few
questions about my date and time of birth. It didn’t sound strange since I
thought he was only reiterating the details to ascertain my birthstone. Things
started looking a bit odd when he asked me questions on my astrological stars
and a few other details. I shared with him whatever little I knew about them
and without delay he got into the act of referring certain astrological books.
A few minutes into his reading,
the fellow came up with a suggestion which sounded totally bizarre to me! He stated
that based on my astrological stars I’m supposed to wear only a pearl on my
ring and no other stone. The thought of wearing a ring with a pearl didn’t
sound appealing to me at all. I badly wanted a ring with a stone and preferably
my birthstone itself.He refused to accept my
wish and almost confirmed the order with what he suggested. He was about to
sell me the ring when I found a bit of courage from somewhere and told him,
that was not what I wanted. I categorically laid down before him the need to
have a ring with a stone and not a pearl. He continued to respond negatively
and said if he was to sell a ring to me it’ll only be one with a pearl on it.
So much for customer being the king!
The argument went on for a
while. I tried my best to convince him about my long standing wish to have a
ring with a stone on it and my dislike towards wearing one with a pearl. He was
absolutely adamant on his decision and didn’t seem like budging at all. After a
few minutes into the discussion he made a weird suggestion. He proposed
continuing the discussion on the upstairs of the shop. I for a moment was not
sure what his intentions were. I even wondered about a secret collection of
rings with stones on the floor upstairs which he probably didn’t want to reveal
to the other customers around.
With a bit of apprehension
I followed him to the section upstairs. I was quite confident that he was not
going to act smart since my family knew where I was at that given point of time
and he knew that too. Expecting an array of mirrors reflecting immense wealth
of precious jewellery in diamonds, gold and silver, I climbed the stairs to the
second floor. I was almost sure of finding my Aquamarine studded gold ring
awaiting my arrival to be part of my finger as my eighteenth birthday gift from
my mom. We landed on the top floor
and what in actuality welcomed me was totally beyond any of my remote faculty!
It was neither the glittering gold nor other jewels that presented themselves
in front of me. Rather a completely empty hall which was merely plastered with
absolutely no furniture whatsoever greeted us! I was startled for a few moments
that the shop owner had to shake me back to reality.
What followed after this
was even more shocking! He laid down a bamboo mat in front of us and invited me
to join him. Till date I’m not sure from where, but by the time I blinked my
eyes there was a bottle of Honey Bee brandy and two glasses right in front of
us. This was followed by a statement, “Now, let us discuss”! I seemed to have lost all
my abilities to speak at that moment. My vocabulary appeared to have deserted
me forever. An innocent boy who just turned eighteen who visited a jewellery
shop with a simple wish to have a gold ring with a birthstone was made to sit
in front of a bottle of brandy being insisted of having a peg or two before
striking a deal to agree on an unwanted item from the store! What a wacky world
of business it was!
I came to a quick
conclusion that I won’t be able to resist the action with words. There was only
one thing left to do. A flash of a second is all what it took. With less time
than required for a cracker to burst after set to fire, I ran holding my life
and was out of his sight in no time! I was literally flying down the stairs and
was out of the shop as well, before he could even say ‘stop’!
What a way to get a simple
birthday wish fulfilled?!
