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An ordinary day - Part II
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Again without replying to him, Shola moved her, now freshly made-up, eyes over the dazzling display of diamond rings under the glass case.
"Ah, you are looking for rings." the man declared.
Shola looked up, gave a shy smile and said a bit hesitantly, "See, it is our third wedding anniversary and my husband wants me to buy something nice for myself."
"That's great!" The sales person smiled at the woman standing in front of him and cursed the man silently who could send such a beautiful wife all alone to buy a gift for herself. "He must be a rich man, perhaps older than her," he thought to himself and took out the tray displaying a pricey collection of diamond studded rings. The lady naturally picked up the biggest rock and slipped it on her slim fingers. "How does this look?" she asked the man. "Perfect," was the expected answer.
But then Shola shook her head and took off the ring. "I already have something like this. Can I see something different....say in white...?" By this time, the salesman had already smelled the perfume enveloping Shola's beautiful, well dressed body, her carefully made up nails and had come to the conclusion that a few thousand rupees here and there would not affect the absent husband. "Madam, we have a white gold ring. But this being such a special day, why don't you pick up something real special, say a platinum ring?" Saying this, he put a smaller tray of rings on the counter, albeit with more flourish.
Shola tried several ones. The young man was too happy to help. Then Shola picked up a ring that had three diamonds set in the most unusual style, wore it on the third finger of her right hand and stared at it for a long time. The experienced salesman could recognize love when he saw it. The lady had fallen for that ring. Fallen big time.
"Ah, it is made just for you," the man exclaimed. Shola looked at him, then again at the ring and murmured, "So beautiful."
"Not more than you," the man said flatteringly. Of course Shola was a pretty woman, and deserving of such a finely crafted piece of jewellery.
Shola blushed and keeping her eyes on the finger asked softly, "How much?"
"Just eighty-five thousand."
"Wow, that's expensive."
"But look at the quality of the diamonds, mam. And anytime you want to sell it, we would just deduct twenty percent of the cost and...."
"But I would never dream of selling it." Shola spoke testily.
"Of course not mam. I just want to assure you that you are making the right choice." The salesman hastened to pacify the rich customer.
"Okay, I will take it although I know my husband is going to blow his top when he sees this," Shola smiled conspiratorially at the man who smiled back and said, "Our anniversary comes just once-a- year and..."
Again, Shola took the bill and left the counter. Now, she went to the first floor. It was choc-a-bloc with traditional and western outfits. A woman could spend the whole day here. Shola waved away a shop assistant when she came her way. She knew what she wanted. She picked up a bright red halter neck top and went to the trial room. What she saw in the mirror pleased her. She came out, put the blouse in the wire bag provided by the store, for the customers, and proceeded further. A white shirt with pearl buttons was next to go in the bag. In about two hours, Shola, had tried on more than ten outfits and selected five out of them. She gave the bag to the shop girl, collected her copy of the bill, and went to check on some evening purses.
By the time Shola was through with her selections, she had six sales slips in her purse and it was closing time for the store. When she came down, there was heavy rush on all the payment counters. Staff members all around were busy winding up. Nobody paid much attention to Shola when she walked out of the store with empty hands. She had bought nothing. Shola went home.
That night when Shola went to sleep, she thought of all the beautiful things she had touched, tried and put in the shop cart, and which then lay unclaimed in the store. It would have been nice if she had really bought all that stuff, she thought. But it was alright. Shola still felt good. For a few hours she had belonged to the bold and beautiful set of people. She remembered the admiring look on the young man's face when she wore that diamond ring. Shola smiled in the dark and murmured, "Happy birthday to Shola."
Within a few minutes, Mrs Shola Nair in her faded cotton nightie was fast asleep.
The End
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Varsha Pathak
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