Mom forcefully tucked us in bed. The excitement and festive fervour hardly let us sleep. Some ‘fortunate’ people in the neighborhood had already started lighting the crackers. Deepawali was arriving! “Tomorrow we shall rush right after breakfast”, I assured Meghna, my kid sis which was more of a self assurance in reality. The three days of Diwali would mean either lightingcrackers or watching others light crackers. The forcefully imposed breaks were very annoying. How could the adults not light as many crackers , I wondered. Why do they come out only in the evenings to light it? What better business could they have the entire day? “We shall never stoplighting crackers, ok? However old we both get” I told Meg. She grinned handing me another ‘atom bomb’. 
I am forced to use the clichéd phrase, “Years rolled by”. They have indeed. Diwali is arriving. I am surely happy but not ‘Crackers Happy’. It is more of “No Office Happy”. “No crackers?” I can almost hear the 10 yr old Bhavna asking me indignantly. But there is shopping or maybe some movie I reasoned out. “Boring adult!” said the kid.
With Diwali being a day away , I could not think of anything to shop for myself. Hence I offered to join mom for her saree and diya shopping. “Festive spirit” I reassured myself. Mom mentioned an unfamiliar store as our shopping destination. She had a complicated theory about the sarees there being of the best quality and best price and rare design and what not. This treasury of rare sarees was embedded in the ocean of chickpet, one of the oldest areas of Bangalore. So the Saturday before diwali, I am along with an extremely saree crazy mom and a good natured accompanist aunt. Every inch of chickpet was covered with people comprising of Festival shoppers, traders, wholesale dealers, hawkers, florists etc. There were even a few houses in some inner lanes. Nobody seemed to mind the lack of space or the piled up garbage in every corner. The lively spirit was in the air. After maneuvering ourselves through the narrowest and also the dirtiest by lanes of Bangalore , we landed at our destination. It was thankfully a quick selection and extremely pleased with the bargain we were headed towards the bazaar that sold earthen lamps.
Mom seemed to know the place like the back of her hand. “I know a shortcut” she beamed turning into a narrower by lane. “BRIDAL JEWELLERY FOR RENT” read the sign outside the shop in that lane. The sign was more prominent than the shop by itself. I was very amused by that and just stared at it for a second longer. This was enough for the shopkeeper who waved enthusiastically from his shop, beckoning us to have a look. The festive spirit, a dominant ‘window shopping rocks’ DNA and the enthu cutlet shopkeeper lured us into the shop. All the 3 walls of the shop were covered with imitation jewellery also called as 1 gram gold in the colloquial lingo. Being a staunch supporter and buyer of authentic jewellery, the usually confident mom was also not at her assured best here. My knowledge in the said area was highly limited to mom’s experience and stories.
“What TV serials do you all watch madam? Maybe we could begin with your favorite” asked the shopkeeper in a very obvious tone.
We were taken aback. I wondered if it were a prerequisite to shop for such jewellery. I was further amused but had no answer for Mr. Enthu Cutlet. "Balika Vadhu", replied mom in a tone to match with the shopkeeper’s. It was a recent addition to her crazy repertoire of television programs.
“You should watch estar pluss ( read star plus) madam. Ekta Kapoor serials are the best you know” said Mr. Cutlet in an almost didactic approach. He pointed at an extremely long gold filigree with a pendant almost the size of a cricket ball ! “This is the ‘in thing’ madam. Its selling like hot cakes after Ramola ( or was it Kamolika ?) wore it in one of the episodes. Maybe you should try it on madam" he said and I also realized that he was asking me to try it on.
I was horrified. With all due respect to the Ramolas and Kamolikas or any other vamps of the K serials I politely refused to try it on. I wondered if I bore any resemblance to any of the popular vamps as he had picked the said piece for me. Why would anybody want to look or imitate those vamps? I also realized that Enthu cutlet likes must be the source of inspiration for Ekta Kapoor to produce more and more saas bahu serials. My amusement level had soared to a new high.
Meanwhile mom had managed to pull out her new buy, the saree out of the bag and asked him if he could find something that goes with the saree. With an additional 40watts brightness in his face “Om Shanthi Om necklace Madam" replied the shopkeeper. He could have as well screamed “Eureka".
I burst out laughing. Om Shanti Om necklace! Wow! Atleast it was Deepika Padukone this time and not a Kamolika. He proudly produced a necklace with matching earrings to go with. Contrary to my expectation, the jewellery was actually attractive. The stones were more of a subtle glimmer and the gold also had a touched down polish giving the entire piece an antique look. I liked it and tried it on . I was super excited and I wanted to buy it immediately. Mom too approved of the choice. The shop keeper was jubilant. He wanted to offer a variety of choices and pointed out at one ‘Jodha Akbar Set' and even managed to find a 'Balika Vadhu Set' perhaps to please my mom. I was very firm about my Om Shanti Om set and he too happily sold the piece.
“ Do not wear it with this T shirt and jeans madam” were his parting words of advice.
Highly amused, extremely entertained and blissfully happy was I with my Om Shanthi Om necklace. “Happpy Diwaliii” replied the proud owner of Om Shanthi Om necklace to Mr. Enthu Cutlet.
