𝗠𝘆 𝗠𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿'𝘀 𝗚𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗡𝗲𝗰𝗸𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲

Women have a weakness for gold and gold ornaments. Like other women my mother too was obsessed with gold. Since we were a middle class family my mother could not afford to buy more gold ornaments during her lifetime. In1975 during Summer a man claiming to be a goldsmith came to our village with a mysterious-looking cloth-bindle slung across his shoulder. I was then a student of nineth standard in high school. As the man with a tousled hair and stubble with a vermillion tick on the head moved from door to door accompanied by his assistant offering people the service of cleaning their gold ornaments and to make them shine anew. My mother too wanted to make her old gold necklace look new and shining. She, my aunt and two other women from our street wanted to take advantage of the goldsmith's service at the doorstep, that too, at a little cost. When asked about his credentials, the goldsmith identified himself as Madan, a itinerant goldsmith from the village Sarangagad. His elusive look though a little bit bewildering, he could manage to win the confidence of the women of our street. He sat on the verandah of our home, opened bundle containing his tools and then began his work.                                                               My mother asked him to remake her gold necklace in a new design. He agreed to finish his work in about four days. Sitting on a mat, he burned charcoal on the earthern fire-pot blowing wind over it through a windbag. He took my mother's necklace, cleaned it in a chemical solution and then beat it into a small ball before my own eyes. He kept it securely on a small brass plate, then started cleaning the gold chains of other women. He was a bespectacled middle-aged man and behaved with everybody so politely that those present on the scene were very much impressed with him. He even claimed that he was an orthodox person and was undertaking a fast on that day as per religious rituals.. and refused to have any tea, snack or offer of a meal. His obedient assistant who was sitting beside him helped him in his work. They worked till sun-set, neatly packed their bundle containing my mother's beaten gold ball, the hammers, callipers  and everything they had. They kept the bundle at our home and assured us to return from their village the next morning to finish their remaining work. We let them go because they so polite, civilised and well-behaved. Much to our shock and disappointment, they did not arrive the next morning. We opened the mysterious bundle which contained only useless tools. We were shocked to discover that the beaten ball of gold  which was originally my mother's necklace turned out to be a ball of bronze only. Later on we knew that that so-called goldsmith was an imposter and a clever theif. 

Personal Write-up

Dr. Pradeep Kumar Nayak