Goldie Locks

Well, this is not about fairy tale Goldielocks and the Three Bears. I was thinking about my gold ornaments stashed away in bank locker and it seemed liked a good title for my rant.

I never liked gold, or diamonds, platinum or silver for that matter. Many elderly women and not-so-elderly women were shocked and aghast to hear this. According to them it is not a normal behaviour for a lady. If you're a woman you got to love gold (other metals). I never believed I'm a normal person. I'm unique, so each and every other human beings. I find display of ornaments ugly and tasteless. I never brought a single carat of gold for myself. Having said that I've quite a collection of gold given by my parents and that is that. During my wedding my parents' worth was directly proportional to the weightage of jewellery I exhibited according to the jerks I call relatives. 

I forbade hubby to buy me anything in yellow metal. He, himself does not believe in the concept of investing in physical gold. Sorry to bubble the burst. Buying gold is a bad investment until and unless you enjoy putting it on display. So, as a couple that part is sorted. Still extended family never gets tired of asking if my husband brought me any gold recently. During most of such conversation I zone out. And sometimes I tell he does not need to, because he has 50 kilos gold (that's me/cheeky I know).

I even wonder at few friends who jumped into this bandwagon. During our friendship we obviously never conversed about this. Otherwise I would be knowing about their craziness. Is it their original interest? Are they giving in for peer pressure? I would not know. Rather I would not want to know. Definition of happiness is different for each.  

What is this obsession we Indian have? Once upon a time it was considered Aapat Dhana (emergency money). If your finance is going in the dumps, either you sell gold or loan it out to get out of that crunch. And it was normal for people to buy gold when there was a bumper crop as our country is agriculture-based.

As for me I would trade gold for good books any day. My prerogative is simple and basic that may look abnormal to others. While their passion for some yellow metal seems irrelevant to me. I will end this rant by agreeing to disagree.

The Month That November 2020

As a tradition we never miss Deepavali to celebrate with family. However, when I heard some known elderly couple being diagnosed and admitted to hospital due to COVID at native it scared the wits out of me to cancel the plan even before it could materialize. Instead we did a day trips to Manchanabele Dam, Dodda Alada Mara, and Hesaraghatta Lake with all corona protocols. The same weekend we visited our favourite pub after 9 months. On both accounts people were not thronging mainly because of the festival. Most of the eateries and restaurants were taking all the mandatory precautions. Still I wonder when the life will be normal where we could roam around freely without masks or constantly worrying about the virus. 

Cousin M1 rented a house and set up each and every thing on her own without any help. I could not be more proud of that little girl who grew up to become this fiercely independent woman.   

The movies we have watched are The Dark Tower (English), The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind (English), Devaki (Kannada), Ye Ma Yau (Malayalam), Ludo (Hindi), Over the Hedge (English), Big Brother (Malayalam), Klauss (English), Holidays in the Wild (English), Operation Christmas Drop (English), Mega Mind (English). Among them Ludo, Klauss and The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind tops the list. Others are okay to bad.

The web series were Body Guard (English/Netflix), Emily In Paris (English/Netflix) and Aashram 2 (Hindi/MX Player). 

The books read were Circe-Madeline Miller, Forty Rules of Love-Elif Shafak, Daddy's Girl-Danielle Steel, Anxious People-Fredrik Backman, Evidence of the Affair-Taylor Jenkins Reid, and Blue Umbrella-Ruskin Bond. Circe inspired me to read Greek mythology and hope to do the same next year maybe. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman is another amazing read. Having liked his 'A Man Called Ove' this is my second book by the author. And I did the most predictible thing, picked his another Beartown. What is with Swedish writers, first it was Stieg Larsson and now Backman. Another new found author is Elif Shafak. Forty Rules of Love is about sufi saint Shams and sufi poet Rumi. Hubby started wondering who is this Shams of Tabriz I'm quoting often in our conversation. If I continued with Shafak Turkey might be our next destination for sure.

When hubby got the opportunity to work-from-home for 15 days we decided to visit the native along with cousin M1. It was good to see mother, Ammamma and others after a gap of months.

November has been good. Hope for the kind December.