Full Many a Gem

I think Pearls can be in the gem stone category. Pearls are warm and beautiful and that’s probably why my we decided to gift our daughter with a beautiful ensemble of pearls. Not for us the hoi-poi pearls found among our Kochi jewellers

By a streak of good business returns we zeroed in in buying pearls from Chennai as a friendly helpful cousin finally took us to the famous jewellers in Chennai-Bapalals.

She was right. As we stepped into the cool air-conditioned comfort of the fashionable showroom, with showcases of glittering jewellery like a mirage in the palace of Midas I stood agape, as was mindful of the Tamil maami’s resplendent in colourful Kancheepuram’s with diamond nose rings, and sparkling earrings. I felt like a country Cinderella.

I was all for scooting out but a pleasant salesman seated us and listened to our request. He assured us in true salesman spirit that Bapalals would satisfy our every demand.

 Now row upon row and clusters of pearls lay in pristine, glorious, magnificence lay in front of us. Humming and hawing we chanced upon three strings of pearls glistening like sunlit clouds, with intervals of golden and coral clasps. This was my dream materialising right in front of me. The one we saw was only a sample but the in-house designer drew our ideas into fruition. An elaborate pendant of pearl and corals, with earrings to match completed the set.

 The deal was struck. The cash bill for Forty thousand, not peanuts then was paid. Visa cards had not yet seen the light of day. They assured us that the order would be executed within two months and would be sent to us in Kochi. One didn’t have to doubt the credentials of Bapalals, as vouched by my cousin a long-time resident of Chennai

I now dreamt of the gift for daughter in time for a marriage do in the family. I even had ready a gorgeous Kancheepuram as I had seen on the maami’s

 The two months hiatus was over. We rang up Bapalals, only to be told that they had posted it two days prior to our call. Courier service was still in the womb of time. Busy at work we sent our maid with authorisation letters to the college post office. But day after day she returned empty handed and sightless of our pearls like a female Columbus seeking for lost land

My brave man strode the floor and I shivered with anxiety. He fumed in smoke and he thundered like Churchill over the phone to Bapalals. Stress was not in my dictionary then and so I met the Head Postmaster. He gave me a tongue lashing as he said any ‘urupidi’ meaning jewellery worth more than ten thousand had to be insured and were we ignorant of the rule?

Calls to Bapalals was no help, not insured and posted by a peon who found out due to our insistence that he had posted it. And then like the dove that brought Noah a leaf as the flooding receded my tears evaporated when the parcel was found after two weeks

Our pearls, our treasure was sheathed in an eight by eight inches cardboard box. The address was struck on a paper that had seen better days. Sealing wax seals were absent.

Call it a miracle or what you may call it. The jewellery brought with sweat and tears rose from the depths of a Monte Cristobal style postal cavern