An Ounce of Au

I saw Gold!
You mean on the billboards or on TV commercials?
No...NO! I “saw” solid gold.
Okay. Okay. But where?
On a person. A girl. So much gold she was wearing…I saw all this for the first time.

What was routine for me, was a shocking eye-opener for someone.

Someone who travelled to that part of our country for the first time, saw the rush in the gold showrooms for the first time, attended a local wedding ceremony for the first time, and who is still shaking his head in disbelief about "so much” fuss over gold.

And that set me thinking about Au, which is the symbol for gold in the Periodic Table for Chemical Elements.

For many, gold is:
Important and essential as rice, coconut, coconut oil, banana, banana chips, temple festivals, elephants, boat race, rains, strikes, thatched roofs, and flower garlands

Important enough to be a preferred means of investment for centuries

Important enough to be passed as family heirlooms from a generation to the next

Important enough to be pledged as a guarantee for loan

Important enough to link and de-link relationships and families

Important enough for adorning deities in temples

Important enough to be kept in a safe deposit locker

Important enough to seek a guarantee on its purity

For me, gold is:
Important enough to pause and pray for the safety of all miners who travel to the center of the earth to unearth this metal. As I update myself on the rescue of around 33 gold miners trapped in a collapsed gold mine in Chile, I come across the following piece of information: …the trapped gold miners have to watch what they eat because their escape route is an extremely narrow shaft of around 70 cm in diameter. And if they put on weight, it will be difficult for them to escape….

Important enough for me to pause and think about the craftsmen working in tiny cells, painstakingly carving intricate designs, striving for perfect symmetry, and thereby adding a shine to the original glitter of this metal

Important enough for me to think about the environmental effects of certain mining processes used by some gold mining companies

Important enough for me to note that the gold mining industry has empowered many people in South Africa and China—leading producers of gold

Important enough for me to sit up and notice that my country is one of the largest consumer and importer of gold.

And finally, important enough for me to offer a 24 carat thanks to all those who work hard to give me my Au.