My high school days were nostalgia filled. I distinctly remember the 26th October 2001 fell a Friday. That was the day I turned 16. The day is stamped indelibly on my memory. After all, the day transformed me into a woman, satiating my mind with requited love and passion–My Necklace Made Of Glass Beads! I still possess it with the same passion and my husband agrees, “It’s a true love story.”
I was staying just one kilometer away from the street through which I used to walk to reach my school. On the outskirts of Vatika village, this nondescript street was becoming the center of attraction. I used to say to myself, as I walked along the street, that the huge building that was being constructed on the right side of the street would adorn the street and beckon a lot of people. The street therefore seemed to me to sport a coy look.
Not even a single day passed without my thinking about the upcoming building. And within a short span of months, I could see the huge building standing up there with pomp and finesse. The exotically tantalizing glass windows of the building gave a welcoming show of what it all meant. Ornaments made from gold, silver, gemstone, diamond, pearl, etc. were dispersed all over the hall with necklace, earring, bracelet, etc. hung from the sides of the glass windows. And there stood out my princely glass necklace as if it were teasing me. The dazzling light that the street beamed had a resounding impact on the entire locality. The inaugural day of the jeweler’s was scheduled to be on Friday, the 26th October 2001. The jeweler’s was rightly named ‘The Heartland.’ It was truly the land of my heart.
My father used to tell me, “Never ever fall in love with anybody.” Following in the footsteps of my father’s advice, I never gave a meaningful look at the jeweler’s, though deep from my inside, I could sense an undercurrent of crush always propelling me to give a look to the glass necklace, but I wouldn’t budge and I knew I must be resolute, for I was the daughter of my proud father.
The college going girls, professional women and the shopping housewives alike look with the same purpose that meant possessing one. Whoever wouldn’t have wished for one? I could see the hustle and bustle in the street heralding the inaugural day on the Friday. And here, my princely necklace adorns the glass window beckoning me; in my father’s language, ‘pestering his daughter.’
“One day someone will possess it,” I said to myself and I started to recognize the tugs of my heart with an emotion that was hitherto unknown to me. As the inaugural day drew nearer I turned philosophical muttering to myself, “The glass necklace is beautiful because I loved it and not the other way round.”
Friday, the 26th October 2011: I walked along the street towards ‘The Heartland.’ My prince had a meaningful look that I could not resist. Forgetting my father’s advice and betraying my will and conviction, I just reached for my prince and eagerly inquired its cost. As it was the inaugural day and as I was first to visit the jeweler’s, the owner of the shop presented me with that very glass necklace for free. I was joyful and tears started to stroll down. That day, when I reached home I gave back a meaningful look at the necklace and there was a small print along the chain of the necklace: “Yours prince!” As they say, ‘if your love is true, it tracks you down like a cruise missile.’