“What? You’ve got ivory products? Isn’t it illegal to own them?” he asked. “Yes it is brother, but it’s been with our family for quite some time. Since the time when dealing in ivory products were legal”, she said. “Wow”, he gasped. Puja understanding the amazement of her cousin and his taste in antique stuffs offered to provide him a piece of an artifact to which he was absolutely obliged. He wanted to pay but she refused. For her it was just one small piece among hundreds lying around. That night he couldn’t sleep. The artifact made up of genuine ivory. The excitement of owning something rare and illegal gripped him with excitement. That whole night he dreamt about everything ivory. From statues, to sculptures of naked women to even a whole life sized elephant made up of ivory. The dreams were unrealistic and the situations in which he got those artifacts made no sense with the real life scenarios. In one of his dreams he was literally riding an elephant made up of ivory, like some god, with people around bowing down to him. That must have been the feeling of superiority of owning something rare being reflected that ways. So two days after that Puja called him and told him that she’d finally got the piece after going through all the stuffs. Some were pretty big enough and had a huge price in the market. She didn’t want to give those not because of the price but because that could land her and her family in trouble. So she had chosen one piece she liked very much and thought he would value much. And in the evening when they both met, she carefully took out a small piece of paper in which the ivory piece was wrapped quite carelessly. She opened it. He actually couldn’t make out what it was. It struck him only when he took it in his hands and watched carefully for almost five to seven minutes. His face changed. Seemed like he was angry, or sad or just plain unhappy or dissatisfied. He actually couldn’t tell. Puja, knowing her cousin well, asked him, “What’s wrong dai? You didn’t like it? Is it too small? If so I can get you something bigger”. To which he replied, “No sis. Absolutely not. I will definitely accept this piece and I love it. But I hate it even more. I love it simply because it’s ivory. But I now I hate it even more and will hate every other piece of ivory item from now on.” Puja was surprised and obviously confused. “What do you mean, Ka-dai?” “Puja do you realize what this is?”
“Yes I do realize. It’s a GANESH”, she said casually.
P.S. This is a short story based on my real life experience but slightly dramatized. And the image used in this blog is the actual Ivory Ganesh, I'm talking about.
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