Paper for Gold

A silent relationship between gold and women.

Jewel, Paper and Woman

زیور، کاغذ اور عورت

ज़ेवर, कागज और औरत

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Had gold ever belonged to women? Or has it always been an asset to help the financial condition of the house?

GOLD

There are countless aspects of gold, where one sees it as jewellery, a beautiful add-on to one’s beauty, the other takes its impression as an investment, a backup option for solvency.

Growing up in an Indian household gave me this duality of impressions towards gold. I have noticed this private intimacy between gold and women, this love towards that piece of metal every woman carries. This is no modern trend it is historical that women have always had a soft side for gold jewellery. Back in the Egyptian era women were buried with their gold in their graves. It shows the Depth of emotions gold acquires in the life of a woman. Maybe this love towards Gold is also among the reasons why Gold is so valuable. Obviously, gold is one of the rarest elements to find, really costly to extract and has high demand in the market, thus it gets really expensive. Gold is Mad expensive, till a degree, gold in many cases defines the status of a whole country, regarding its rates and availability. Maybe this high pricing and always increasing rate became a reason to make it an asset for financial conditions, it’s nothing new, even in history, most of the trades were done in gold, not gold as solid currency but as treasures. Empires, when they used to loot the civilians and militant camps they majorly sought weapons and gold (in any form whether as coins or jewelleries). Transitioning to our households, gold is being ‘looted’ but has a new name.

Gold Loan

A normal family like yours, lives a great life in stable financial conditions, but unfortunately when a calamity decrees on the source of income, whether a loss of a job or loss in business, the whole family struggles. During those times a very obvious option comes up, To Take Gold Loan. Taking a gold loan or selling it in order to regain stability seems a very fair option, ‘this metal was just sitting in our house, wasn’t it?’. Many, in fact most of the time people forget that it wasn’t just a piece of metal, it was a jewellery, that too of gold and that too of a woman. On top of that even if we succeed in understanding it, there’s an ocean full of emotions attached to it by a woman.

They(any lady of your house) without even showing a bit of hesitation bring their jewellery from their lockers and hand it to either bankers or jewellers. For us that jewel comes up to be a couple of thousand rupees (a few hundred dollars), we do feel remorse in our heart seeing our mother, sister, wife or even daughter giving their belongings. But we can’t feel that ache they get in the heart seeing the jewellers taking their ‘Zewar' (jewellery) away from their sight. The reason we can’t feel it might be because we have always perceived jewelleries as some beauty add-ons to a lady’s attire.

But for them,

That pair of earrings might be the first purchase she made for herself with her own earnings. A light of empowerment, a pedestal she stood on by her own sweat.

Maybe his father gave her those kangan (bangles) as a gift for her wedding. A departing present.

Maybe that necklace was the last memento of her mother, maybe she had grown up seeing her mother wearing that beautiful necklace all over the weddings and festivals. And now a person is taking that necklace away from her sight giving her a few paper notes.

Maybe her nanu (grandfather) had bought her that bracelet for which during her childhood, she fought her sisters/friends.

Her dadi (grandmother) might have gifted her that watch, which holds all the memories of her dadi after her death.

In many families a lineage, a tradition of passing on their inherited ring or any other jewellery follows, the new bride receives a jewellery piece from her mother-in-law which was given to her by her mother-in-law and so on.

There might be a thousand stories with a million emotions behind every piece of gold, all simultaneously bursting inside her mind at the bank handing over that piece. A whole series of conflicting thoughts she fights all the way from the house to the bank just for the sake of her family. she calms her aching heart and pulsing blood flow with obviously a hope that in future, one day, she’ll bring back that kangan, that earring, that bracelet, that necklace to herself. But under the escalating financial weakness and under the weight of interests on interests on interests that hope just dies, that hope gets crushed when the calls from the bank come to warn her about the bidding of her jewellery. The hope just dies there.

Gold Loan is a highly risky and sensitive step, just because you can’t sense that emotion behind a piece of metal doesn’t mean it does not exist. A gold loan can surely be helpful in many cases but not in all cases. See your options. Consider your emotions. there are only dreams of prosperity within the solvency of gold, but just dreams. Be aware of interest traps. Don’t sell your gold for Papers, unless it’s necessary.

Give me your feedback, and thoughts on this piece of mine.

Keep on remembering me,

Your author,

Muhammad Dilshad Ansari.