Precious Pearls of Practicality from Puri.

We, (should I write I instead?) spent most of the next day lazing around.  The sight- seeing of all those local sites on the previous day, had taken its toll on my aging bones and I thought it best to recharge my batteries by resting to my heart’s content. We had earlier decided to go for boating on the Chilka Lake, one of the most beautiful coastal lakes in the sub-continent.

 The heavenly Chilka Lake is a real soul-soother.

Now before I get going, let me share one important incident of the afternoon of the 24^th.  Jaya, my wife, returned from shopping in the market, visibly excited.  She is passionate about shopping for all and was trying to make the most of the rest day.  She takes a childish delight in shopping and it was hard for her to stay put within the confines of our room, when there was a very enticing market waiting out there to explore and shop from. I was most probably napping when she was back, chatty like the people near a house on fire.  She muttered out that she had taken advantage of a drunken fisherman and bought some 16 pearls from him at an extraordinary price. She just paid Rs.100/- for those pearls! The man had gone fishing and had picked up some huge sea-shells. It seemed that while separating some of those conjoined shells, he had hit upon real luck as there were shining pearls inside them.  Rita, my nephew Kaltu’s wife was so much taken with her narration that she hurried her out of our room once again just to try her luck out as well.

As for me, I was having a tough time putting the pieces of this apparent jigsaw puzzle together.  There were so many questions going through my mind. If the pearls were really genuine, why did the fisherman sell them at such a cheap price? Was he really drunk or just pretending to be one? If he was playacting, why was he? Whatever the case may be , fishermen are normally not that naïve to try to dispense of a heavy catch like the way he was doing. I tried my best to make them see reason. Unfortunately, my words fell on deaf ears as my wife dearest outsmarted the sceptic in me and the doubting Thomas was laid to rest for the time being.

But God did not let me wait long. Next morning when Jaya and I were on the beach trying to catch a glimpse of the rising sun, we stumbled upon one Santosh, a local stone-seller. Finding out that we were not that eager to buy his ware, he tried enlightening us on his own.  He told us tens and scores of stone-sellers from all over, come to Puri almost every day in the hope of making a fortune. They buy the not- so- costly or valuable stones from the locals and make money by selling them in places like Kolkata or some other neighbouring cities at an exorbitant price. Taking out some real pearls and stones, he regaled us about the worth of the stones like Nila, Pokhraj and some others.  If some one is physically unwell and feeble, wearing a nila would do a world of .good to him and keep him from the harmful influence of Lord Shani, the fierce Hindu god.  He repeatedly warned us not to buy the cheap stuff from the majhis (boatmen) at a place called The Red Crabs on Chilka Lake, our destination of the day. One of the great truths about Jaya is she will melt but never bend without having ample proofs. I was in the meanwhile, biding for the opportune moment.

The habitat of the Red Crabs in Chilka Lake

At around 2.30 p.m. Kaltu and I hit the road again, with a view to confirming our trip to Chilka.  We were heading toward Ghosh Travels again, when I suggested we consult some other tour operators at first. The man at the first place seemed to be  taking time, keeping us at bay all the while, for making some mental calculations before telling us that as the sojourn would take nearly 8 hours, he would charge us Rs.1050/-.

We left him faster than I can describe and visited the office of another agency. This man asked us not to take Tata Gypsy, but he would arrange a more comfortable vehicle and for that he would charge us Rs.750/-.That made me open up to him and I started talking about how initially we wanted to stay for a few days, how unlucky we were not to be able to book the tickets before the 28^th, how we were trying to make both ends meet by staying in BSS, and how we were filling our stomachs with food from the roadside stalls. The man was understanding as he listened to me patiently. He then seemed to ponder over our predicament and wondered aloud if we would like to go by another car that could be arranged for a mere 500/-. That was not a bad proposal. One thing led to another and finally we agreed to travel by Maruti Echoe for the same price.

By the way, I ask for your forgiveness, Reader, as I have left out an important fact.  Om Prakash, our driver of the previous day told me on our way back (he also asked me not to mention his involvement in this transaction to anybody even remotely connected with Ghosh Travels,) that if we were thinking of visiting the Lake, it would not cost us more than Rs.750/-  though they might ask us for Rs.850/-  to begin with. The intimate way he uttered it to me , raised my suspicion and that is why I decided to make the enquiries before going to Ghosh Travels. Thank God for helping me to see through people like Om, who under the garb of playing the messiah ,  end up rattling our trust and confidence in them in the long run, leaving us wiser  in the process.

To be continued ....