Raj and his Jewellery Woes (Short story)

Raj and Amisha were in love for a couple of years before getting married. Their married life was the opposite of their love life. Back then, Raj was still working and had a lot of disposable income. If there was a fight between them, he would later easily console her by gifting gold rings or jhumkas as a gift.

But, after marriage, Raj lost his job due to downsizing in his company, and was unsuccessfully looking for another job for over a year. His savings were dwindling and his fights with Amisha were increasing. He couldn’t say if there was a correlation between the two, but here he was, unable to buy gold jewelry to pacify her, and unable to continue the fights.

His life had become a big mess, he thought. But he was a resolute man with a never-say-die attitude. He was determined to find a solution to his problem.

He bought and read an eBook: ‘How to find a job in 7 days’. But even after 7 weeks, he was still jobless. He emailed his former friends and colleagues requesting their help to find a job, but didn’t get any favorable response. He even got his resume professionally rewritten, but there were no calls for interviews.

Dejected, he went to see a popular guru. The guru listened to all his grievances and said – “Don’t worry son, all your problems will be solved soon. You just need to think differently.” And for that he took 500 rupees as dakshina!

Raj was even more dejected. He thought he was fleeced by the guru, but, he gave a minute and thought about the advise. After a couple of moments, it struck him — the guru was indeed right.

His problem was not the lack of a job. They had enough money for basic necessities. But his immediate problem was, he didn’t have sufficient disposable income to buy gold jewellery to console his wife. He then cooked up a strategy and attacked his problem from an entirely different angle.

“Hi Amisha, I know you are upset with me. Here’s a small gift for you,” he said and handed over a pair of jhumkas to her.

Picture credit: Royal Tassel Jhumkas, Stylori.com

“Wow, not bad. But . . .” she hesitated.

“It’s made of gold, emeralds and pearls. Don’t you think this expensive jhumka will look nice on you?” he said and smiled.

“Is this really gold?” she asked.

“100% pure 22 carat gold, pure emerald and pure pearls, dear,” he said confidently.

“OK, let me try them,” She said, smiled, and walked to the mirror to try it.

Raj thanked God, his guru, and online e-commerce site Stylori from where he had bought this beautiful imitation jewellery, made of silver, for Rs. 1,400 😉 😛 🙂

Destination Infinity

PS: This post was written for a contest hosted by Chennai Bloggers Club and Stylori. Of course it’s fiction.