The diamond ring

It was a cold December evening, Governor’s house, Shillong. Almost all the ‘who is who’ of the capital of undivided Assam were in attendance. The list includes the cabinet ministers, top bureaucrats, senior police officials, highest military, para military brass stationed in and around the capital, prominent Syiems of the Khasi Jaintia tribe ( a kind of ruler of a particular clan ) renowned citizens of Shillong, educationists and businessmen, accompanied by their spouse and special invitees of the Governor’s household coming for this exclusive occasion. Everyone maintained an appropriate dress code as was politely intimated in the invitation card itself. Soft classical music echoed in the background, the orchestra band specially invited from Calcutta were busy tuning their assortment of instruments. The Durbar hall, refurbished and adorned aesthetically in keeping with the occasion, was laid out with choicest cuisine conveniently, the bar, strategically positioned, boasted of the most exotic brands and some age old vintage wine specially imported from abroad. Turbaned spotlessly white uniformed attendants, exclusive to the kitchen of the Governor’s house, moved unobtrusively and silently among the distinguished guests serving wine. liquor, soft drinks and other choice appetizers.

The auspicious occasion was the ring ceremony of Nidhi (name changed), the only daughter of the Governor, the Pakki Misri ceremony as is called among the Sindhi community.

The Emcee( master of ceremonies) announced in her lilting voice that the proceedings of the ceremony was to begin now and that the bride and groom to be would soon be adorning the auspicious occasion. As if in queue, the bride to be, adorned in priceless jewellery and a fitting bridal attire walked down the hall gracefully, accompanied by her doting parents and all the near and dear ones. An exceptionally beautiful, tall, milky fair lady, she dazzled in her beautiful attire, almost blinding the enraptured admiring elegant guests! She was preceded by the groom to be, the son of a wealthy Sindhi family of diamond merchants from far western India, a matchingly handsome fellow, tall and elegant, walking slowly down the red carpet towards the flamboyantly decorated Mandop, accompanied by his family members, friends and dear ones. Senior ladies and young ones alike sang gaily traditional wedding songs, accompanied by dholoks and cymbals.

Seated on the raised, lavishly designed platform of the mondop, the groom and bride to be faced each other, she lowering her gaze demurely, surrounded by gaily singing aged ladies, parents and all the near and dear ones, all the invited guests gathered around the outer circle. As the groom held her left third finger to put the special diamond ring, the entire hall reverberated with thunderous applause. Nidhi instantly fell in love with the ring, a rare two carat round brilliant red diamond fitted exquisitely in shining pure gold, that caressed the milky white soft base of her finger, as if it finally found its long lost home. The ring sparkled in myriad hues, decorative chandelier illuminating the hall bouncing of the ring in rainbow dazzle! The gaiety would not stop, wedding songs reached a crescendo, everyone’s fascinated gaze riveted on the couple, the blossoming love of the magnificent duo radiated with a glow that could almost be touched!

with the ring ceremony in progress, every guest was served with choicest exquisite sindhi sweets, specially imported for the occasion.

The Emcee announced in her bewitching voice that the orchestra and the dance troupe would now be enthralling the august gathering with exotic dance numbers and that the guests were most welcome to join. And so the orchestra played along, the vocalist duo singing most popular dance numbers………

The dance troupe, with a mix of Anglo Indians, both male and female gyrated with gusto, the vibe now seeping among the thrilled milieu, impulsively prompting them to shake a few limbs!

The ladies crowding around the bride and groom to be, tapping to the beats of the music till now, could restrain themselves no longer, and compulsively whisked the gorgeous duo towards the dance floor along with them. Nidhi, an accomplished classical dancer, was equally adept at ballroom dancing and also her fiancee, who frequently moved in such circles, gracefully and flawlessly glided among the dancing milieu, pirouetting with an ease as a duck to water.

And the gaiety continued, with dinner served in between, till the wee hours of that chilling December night.

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The following day, in late afternoon, both Nidhi and her fiancee strolled, hand in hand, to the nearby Ward’s lake, starry eyed, deep in love,in divine companionship. Tall pine trees swaying with a whisper in tandem with the chilling cold wind, long shadows almost welcoming the advent of evening darkness, drew the duo closer, feeling the comfort in each other’s warmth. Nidhi, fascinated with the ring, had already grew the habit of touching and rolling it round her finger frequently off and on. Strolling along, silently but pregnant with emotions, they stood on the center of the wooden bridge, enjoying the pretty sight of colorful rush of fish gobbling up strewn bits of popcorn, almonds and the like, thrown intermittently by fascinated co- travelers. Nidhi, completely absorbed with the sight, absentmindedly rolled the ring out of her finger, holding it loosely and as she was excitedly pointing towards a particularly large fish, proud with its motley of blue, red, yellow, funky and radiant hide swimming up, elbowing inferior minions towards the prized crunchy crunchy invite floating above, the diamond ring slipped out of her fingers, fell among the struggling shoal of fish cluster, and vanished deep into the dark watery abyss!! Nidhi, shrieking with horror, almost toppled over the wooden railing losing her balance, trying to catch hold of the vanishing ring, gravitational force taking upper hand over her vain effort, only to be firmly held back by the strong arms of her ever vigilant lover……..

………..Ward’s lake, lying close to the Raj Bhawan, adorned the center of Shillong town with its lush green flower garden, lofty pine trees providing cool shades to the enchanted visitors, the serene grassy slopes surrounding the horse shoe shaped lake, a perfect resting place for dreamy fantasy, a lover’s paradise! Named after the then Chief Commissioner of Assam, Sir William Ward, designed by Engineer Fitzwilliam Thomas Pollok, which was why also called Pollok’s lake and built by colonel Hopkins in the year 1894, the most impressive landscape developed by a Khasi prisoner, an immaculately designed white wooden bridge overlooking the greenish bed of water at its center, the lake boasts of its proud presence in this picturesque town…… But for the horror of Nidhi…..

……….She stood there, feeling nothing but an overwhelming sense of loss, tears running down her face, crying uncontrollably in the arms of her equally bewildered fiancee. Time stopped for an indeterminate period, her lovely face contorted with an unbearable pain, looking aghast, hoping against hope that the ring might somehow magically float up, hysterically beseeching stunned onlookers to help retrieve her beloved ring!

She did not know when she returned, walking like a zombie, ashen faced, supported by her man holding her firmly, himself perturbed, saddened more by her grief than the loss of the precious gem.

She was unable to utter a word, sobbed uncontrollably on the shoulders of her bewildered father, who, with a sinking sense of doom, looked questioningly at her consort, consoling his daughter with confused pats on her back.

Nidhi’s father, the Governor, was a man of rare qualities. A stalwart of freedom struggle, a true Gandhian, he was a close confidante of Mahatma Gandhi. He also possessed a sense of uncanny guile and said to have extricated the Mahatma out of many a tricky situations. He was also a man capable of taking bold decisions. It was said that he once sent a contingent of Assam Rifles under the command of a Major hailing from Manipur,to annex Tawang under Tibetan rule in NEFA ( North East Frontier Agency), now Arunachal, after the occupation of Tibet by China, without the knowledge and consent of the then Prime Minister of India.

Shaken with the incident, he too felt a deep sense of grief, not for the loss of the precious wedding ring, not for the silent whispers among the women folk about some premonition or bad omen the loss seemed to portend, but for the pathetic condition of his beloved daughter, the apple of his eyes, for whom he would pluck a star out of the sky if he could, only to wipe a tear from her mystic eyes.

As was his wont, it did not take him long to make up his decision. Though it was late evening, nay, not so early night, he alerted his personal secretary to call for an emergency meeting with local administrative officials, police personnel and heads of other concerned departments first thing in the morning at his office chamber. He also instructed his PS to inform the CM and Chief Secretary about the development.

Highly respected and held in great esteem by all, the meeting was attended by everyone called, intrigued by the urgency of the Governor’s summons. Taking the lead, the Governor himself narrated the entire incident and asserted his resolve to anyhow retrieve the ring without any loss of time and sought cooperation and suggestions from those present. There was a long silence as the reality sank in, in the absurdity of the proposition, like searching a needle in a haystack, not discounting the possibility that the ring might be already resting in some obscure stomach of one among the thousands of fishy denizens. Someone feebly suggested that divers might be pressed into service to search at the general spot where the ring might have dropped and with luck it may be found. The Governor immediately accepted the suggestion, and being a man who believed and lived with the motto, “a difficult task should be done immediately, an impossible one may take sometime”, instructed to look for divers pronto and get on with the task. In the same breath, he also suggested to drain out the lake as a secondary option, lest the divers failed and instructed to make necessary arrangements to save time.

The administration had a tough time looking for professional divers, a rarity in those times, that too in a hill station like Shillong, where necessity of such divers were practically non existent, and hence were not available. Such professionals needed to be requisitioned from outside and the process would take a good deal of time.The Governor, who was monitoring the situation, would not accept delay, apprehensive that longer the ring remained submerged, more difficult the task might become, and hence asked to discard the idea, and get on with the task of draining out the lake.

The Ward’s lake, being an artificial one, had a provision for flushing out water as an emergency measure or for cleaning, if at all the necessity arose, with water tunnels at one end sealed firmly through a thick concrete wall that was connected to a wide drain that led down to a frothing hilly stream flowing downstream. A botanical garden with varied species of orchids, an Arboretum of exotic trees lined it on either side. Verdant, green Polo ground lay on the other side of the stream.

Galvanized by Gubernatorial orders, the administration was on its edge making arrangements for all the varied assortment of tools, cleaning out reckless outgrowth covering the entire drain downstream, toiling over the rusted iron valves jammed from long neglect. Large nets were put in place at the mouth of the tunnel and along the path of the flush of water at short distances, idea being the possibility of the ring being carried along with the rush of water filled with filth and debris. Anticipating that the single edifice might not be enough to drain out the lake within a reasonable time, fire brigade service from all available stations in and around Shillong were requisitioned, huge pumps fitted with large rubber pipes to siphon off water were positioned at strategic points, additional pumps kept ready for emergency replacement. Despite working feverishly, it took the local authority the entire day and beyond to put in place a modicum of operational team, with equipment and machinery somehow procured from whatever possible avenues.

It was past noon of the third day. The news had already spread like wild fire. People from far and wide thronged around the lake, excited in anticipation, combined noise and hullabaloo almost drowning the incessant sound of the array of huge motors pumping out gallons of water. The fire brigades and the motors were positioned at different exit points on the surrounding roads around the contours of the lake, other than the tunnel that was belching out water at high speed. Filth and debris which were continually spewed out were sifted off and on, searching, and the process considerably slowed down the draining of the lake. Traffic around the vicinity of the lake, though not much in those times, came to a complete halt, flooded roads making any movement, either of traffic or people, impossible. Gush of siphoned water ran down the roads helter- skelter, inundating low lying areas. Discharge of water from the lake went on for the entire day, a huge artificial water body, spread over an area of about five Hectares and by the time it was dark, as the evening set on, the lake was still half empty. Work had to be stopped for the day, as the lighting was insufficient for work though flood lights were on. The process went on the following day, and by mid day, bottom areas became visible. Flocks of fish, in hundreds, so long pampered, became restless, as if their doomsday had arrived. Suddenly devoid of their natural environs, they fluttered out of breadth, swimming desperately towards what little water body that still remained.

The search party, clad in coveralls with rubber gloves and gumboots, descended on the muddy bottom, converging around the area below the wooden bridge. With spades and shovels, every nook and corner of the muddy expanse were dug up, examining whatever solid items that came up. The search was gradually widened, until the entire area wide of the bridge was covered. The exercise was tiresome, to say the least, made more complicated by the continuous outpouring of ground water from underneath which needed to be siphoned off over and over again. Exhausted, sweat drenched, they finally gave up, exasperated by the disgusting task. Message delivered, with the almost certain possibility of the ring being devoured by some fish among the thousands, the Governor now became desperate and very reluctantly issued the unpleasant order. The bigger sized fishes to be disemboweled first, one by one and continue until the ring was found.

A poor khasi boy, aged not more than ten or eleven, wearing a torn half pant and a worn out jacket, was impatiently surveying the scene, very much tempted to join the search party. Unable to restrain his excitement any longer, he ran down the muddy slope with breathless fervor, bare footed and joined the team below the bridge. The search party, although asked to proceed with the gut slitting task of the doomed Pisces, were none the less reluctant and wanted to have another try digging up uncovered areas. The boy found playing with muddy soil most exhilarating, digging with his bare hands ecstatically around the spot where the ring tentatively dropped, both his feet submerged above the ankle. As he covered a sizable area, he suddenly shrieked with pain, something hard pricked his bare foot. He scooped up the object, digging with his hand, and something round came up, covered with mud. As he cleaned it rubbing on his soiled jacket, the diamond sparkled brightly in the setting sun, its brilliance dazzling his surprised eyes. Ecstatic with joy, he shouted in his native tongue,“Nga lah ioh,Nga lah ioh( I got it I got it )”!! The entire search team, the huge crowd thronging around the lake echoed in wild delirium, ” HE FOUND IT HE FOUND IT“!!!!

Holding aloft the boy on their shoulders like a trophy, the entire team marched towards the Governor’s bungalow, the motley crowd following close behind creating a bedlam as if in a victory procession. The boy was given a thorough bath in the sentry quarters, was dressed in a brand new Khasi costume before being presented before the Governor. The governor, who was waiting impatiently, lifted the boy up on his lap, murmuring sweet endearing words as the boy handed over the ring, He presented the boy with his own Swiss made Favre Leuba wrist watch and a generous amount of money in an envelope. Along came Nidhi, smacked a kiss on his forehead, and presented him with exclusive gifts which only she could give. Inserting her beloved ring in her finger she wept again, but this time tears of joy, and her father too shed a few tears, happy that his daughter was happy.

Every member of the team, including support staff, were gifted with both cash and kind, in an envelope, embossed with Governor’s seal. The congregation of people, gathered outside the main gate, were invited inside, normally out of bounds for general public and guarded day and night, and were requested to make themselves comfortable on the sprawling immaculately maintained grassy lawn, flower gardens adorning the chaste surroundings. Governor himself thanked every single person for their support and cooperation, and asked not to leave without having some sweets and beverages. The kitchen had a horrid time arranging in such a short notice, but it was the Governor, nothing was impossible.

The Personal Secretary announced the Governor’s pious intentions, that as a small act of gratitude the Governor had taken upon himself the entire responsibility of upkeep and educational expenses of the boy until he grew up to a man capable of standing on his own feet. And so he did.

Foot note:: The story narrated above is based on an actual incident that did occur during the tenure of Jairamdas Daulatram who was the then Governor of Assam (1949-1956). The story itself is fictional and has no resemblance to reality except the part about the loss of the ring, emptying of the lake, factual description of the lake and off course about the Khasi boy.