A wild goose chase before Diwali

Prashant Acharya, EOI, BAGDOGRA, 22 Oct 2014: A day after Dhanteras, people of the tea gardens near Bagdogra and the other travellers thought they were in for a bonanza as they found hundreds of tiny silver coloured balls which they took for genuine silver scattered all along the Highway.

Hundreds of people went “silver” picking on Naxalbari-Siliguri Road near Singhia Jhora Tea Garden of Bagdogra on Wednesday morning after millions of tiny silvery balls were found scattered on that stretch.

Traffic came on halt as tea garden workers including motorists, auto drivers, cyclists, rickshaw-pullers and even the government staff joined a mad scramble to collect the balls that possibly dropped from a passing vehicle. People were seen collecting the balls till the late evening.

Anand Karmakar a local goldsmith after testing and examining the metal said that it was cent percent original silver. He said that the duplicate silver gets black after burning in flames. Siliguri Deputy Police Commissioner, O G Paul told newspersons in the evening, however, that the tiny balls found near Bagdogra were fake and not original silver. She said that they looked like silver but not original.

Seema Toppo of Singhia Jhora Tea Garden said, “We saw millions of tiny white objects scattered on the streets at about 11 am and soon went to collect it. It might have fallen from the vehicle that had crossed towards Siliguri.”

According to Seema when the news spread the entire area all left their works and ran towards the street to collect the silver balls.

Ramesh Naik of Bagdogra said that he saw a custom’s vehicle passing in a high speed just after the metal fell on the road. He said that the silver balls might have been thrown by the smugglers from the running vehicle when they saw that custom vehicle chasing them.

Some people were found running with the whole family members to collect the unknown object. When asked they said, “Suna hain Asman se kuch kimti cheez gira hain.” According to these poor and illiterate people they believe that it might be the gift of the God on the occasion of Diwali. The rumour spread like wildfire and the entire road was blocked by noon.