The Precious Diamond Necklace Gift

How many of you have ever expected a gift from your parents or spouse? I suppose most of us, right? I too expected gifts on multiple occasions.

It was a Monday morning in May. I was sitting at my study table writing an article. For a long time, I could not write a single sentence. I was thinking, why am I wasting time? Let me listen to FM 93.5, my favorite radio station. I was enjoying the 90s romantic songs. Suddenly, the commercial ad made me a mad mouse. A popular jewelry store chain was offering 10% off on diamond jewelry, only for the first marriage anniversary celebrating couples. I started calculating the dates. Yes, it matched! We were eligible to get the discounts.

I expected a precious gift from my husband on our first marriage anniversary. However, I was hesitant to ask him directly and tried to express my expectation indirectly throughout the day to my intelligent husband. I started searching on the internet and selected a beautiful diamond necklace. The wait was not too long. The next morning, a fair bald man, mostly in his fifties, virtually came to our home with a broad smile on his face to give us our anniversary gift. I became very excited.

I showed my husband the first page of the newspaper and asked him, “Can you tell me who is he?”

He looked at the page for a second and told “He is a renowned jeweler and was appearing in the ad for his own jewelry showroom.”

“Do you know they are giving a huge discount on a diamond jewelry?” I asked.

My husband replied in a convincing tone, “You know, this is the business trick. This bald man without wearing a single ornament appears in an ad for his jewelry store. They use no ornaments. They influence people to buy. He could publish his wife’s genuine picture with a lot of ornaments, but he didn’t give it. Remember, what comes in ad consider it is bad.”

I added, “Yes, you are right. He could publish his daughter’s or daughter-in-law’s picture. Maybe the whole family is not using his jewelry.”

My husband convinced me that buying costly jewelry is a wasteful thing. The mind-making message worked only for a few days. After a few days again, I started convincing my husband again.

I asked, “Do you know how to identify a genuine diamond? ”

“No” he answered.

“May I tell you a story?” I asked.

He said, “Ok.”

I started narrating a story. “There was a dishonest merchant in a Kingdom. He used to sell duplicate diamonds among the tenants. One day, all the tenants came to the king and described the merchant’s ill practice. The king called the merchant and took all his diamonds. The king kept all the diamonds on a plate and kept the plate under the sunlight. After half an hour, most of the diamonds became as hot as the fireball. Only a few diamonds were as cool as water. The king took the cool diamonds and distributed those among the cheated tenants.”    

“Did you understand the moral of the story?” I asked.

He replied, “Yes, the story tells how to identify the genuine diamond. The genuine diamond will never be hot. So, you leave all your anger through meditation and be a genuine diamond.”

The next morning, he set the alarm for 4 am and started calling me to do meditation. I closed my eyes and tried my best to shut my mind, but the flashes from the previous day were playing in front of my eyes.

The previous night of our marriage anniversary, after dinner, my husband called me. “Come quickly, I have a surprise for you”.

I told him “why now at night, tomorrow you can give.”

He replied, “come and silently sit here”.

Yes, finally the moment came for which I was eagerly waiting. He was going to give me the best gift ever, the precious diamond necklace. I sat beside him like a curious cat. He held my right hand and started opening a packet. I closed my eyes and was dreaming of the bright, beautiful diamond necklace I had selected from the online store. I woke up listening to his emotional voice.

“This is the first time I am applying. If it turns out not so great, don’t mind, ok?” he said in a husky voice.

“Mehndi? Did you buy Mehndi for me?” I became very upset.

He took my hand again and told “let me try.”

The very next moment when he started applying patterns of Mehndi on my hand, we lost in the beautiful moments of our marriage days, first meeting, etc.

It was a sweet surprise, one of the best moments of my life. I was taking a bath in the sea of happiness. I felt ashamed because of my greedy expectations. The truth became crystal clear to me. Diamond is just a stone in front of true love and care. Nowadays I am not expecting anything from anyone, even not from myself. Not for the fear of whether I’ll get it, but for the sake of my growth. Love begins when expectation ends.