Friday, May 13, 2005

Gold day

Day before yesterday was "Akshaya thadige". It is a very auspisious day in the Hindu calendar. People have the feeling that what ever goods they buy during the day will only increase and there will be growth for them. Somehow over the years the belief has turned towards buying gold. Lots of people flocked gold shops all over India and bought gold. Gold shops couls not handle the rush and some of them had to close the shop early because there was no stock left. There was a traffic jam near my house as people parked their vehicles and thronged the small gold shop of my locality.

Look at some statistics.
Bangalore - 356 crore Rupees worth gold sold on the day
Chennai - 1800 crore Rupees worth gold sold in this week
Hubli - 8 crore Rupees worth gold sold on the day
Who says India is a poor country.

A relative of mine has been buying gold on this day for the past 15 years. He and collegues of my sister influenced my sister to buy a gold nose ring on the special day.
The day does'nt stop with gold purchases...there are lots of functions ceremonies organised. All wedding halls of Bangalore were booked. There were many grihapraveshas. In some parts of Northern India, there are mass weddings organised. There was a mass child marriage conducted in Madhya Pradesh. I still think that this day did not break the record set on Nov 28th 2004.
This time Basava jayanti was on the same day and so there was a holiday for the state government employees of Karnataka. This may have increased the rush to gold shops. Basava is a very famous Kannada poet of ancient times. He also brought about some changes in the society regarding casteism.

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