(This story originally appeared in on Oct 09, 2018)

Daily wager Motilal Prajapati holds up his Diwali sparkle — all Rs 1.5 crore of it — and says, “Mazaa aa gaya.” The 30-year-old, who toils on minimum wages to feed his family, has dug up the second biggest diamond ever to be found in Panna, MP.“The sparkler he found weighs 42.9 carat. The heaviest one ever found in Panna weighed 44.55 carat and it was dug up in 1961,” said Santosh Singh, diamond officer of Panna, adding: “The gem has been valued at over Rs 1.5 crore. We will auction it.” The government takes about 12% royalty, but that still makes Motilal a crorepati . He had taken an 8mx8m patch on lease in Patti village, 45 days ago. Scores come to try their luck in the diamond mines of Panna — you can hire a 64 sqm patch for just Rs 250 a year and try your luck. But very rarely does anyone get lucky. The last time it happened was in July 2017 when a farmer found a 5.8 carat diamond, valued then at Rs 20 lakh.