Akshaya Tritiyai-The glitters are real Gold

This year Akshaya Tritiyai fell on 27th April. Akshya means without diminishing- hence bring in Aishwaryam home which remains undiminished. Thus goes the significance.

This concept was once the pracitise of those section of the society who believed in astrology which says bring in at least one gram of gold to have prosperity throughout the year.

Now the bug has spread deep and wide and people await the d'day to come and rush to jewellery shops.

However this year the astrologers strongly advocated to bring home diamond or platinum or even silver( white metal).

But, no the yellow metal has all the everlasting charm and there was rush for gold jewellery as usual.

Some of the offers the jewellers had announced on that day in newspapers are given for interesting reading.

Rs. 400/- less with gift vouchers : Service charge 1.5% less for credit cards & Vat 1% less for cash purchases.

Rs. 640/- less per sovereign: Shop open from 6.00 a.m to 11 p.m.

Free gold coin for every purchase worth 15000/-

Rs. 45 less on one gram and no making charges on plain gold jewellery.

For the purchase of gold coin equal weight of silver coin free.

Rs. 55/- less on gram of gold: no making charges for gold jewellery: 7.5% discount on diamonds.

Pre-booking of gold in advance to avail the lower rate among the two rates on Akshaya Tritiyai day.

25% less on making charges and 10% discount on diamond.

T.Nagar and Mylapore, the gold jewellery hubs of south Chennai wore a festive look on the day. The pictures below speak of the festivity.

This year Public Sector Banks have introduced Gold ETF - Exchange Traded Funds as an open ended Mutual Fund Scheme which invest in standard gold bullion. This security can be traded in the market as any other scrip. The banks call this as the intelligent way to trade in the purest
form of wealth.

All said and done this Yellow metal has its own charm and popularity. People, from time immemorial, feel Gold is the safest investment whatever be the season or rate.

The posterity-What are we leaving behind?

Recently I happened to see a documentary ‘My name is Palar’ produced by one Mr. R.R.Srinivasan at Alliance Francaise, Chennai.

Palar starts from Karnataka, flows via Andhra Pradesh enters Tamilnad and reaches Bay of Bengal near Cathurangapattinam .

The documentary was elaborately dealing with the atrocity the river is facing at the hands of greedy business community, bureaucrats, politicians etc.


The effluent from the tanneries in Ambur, Ranipet and Vellore are freely let out into the river causing severe health hazards to population around who consume the water.



Once people were using natural herbs like ‘Kadukkai’ and others as cleaning agents to treat the animal skin. The effluent had rich herbal value and the agriculturists used to vie with each other to collect the same and use in their fields to get high quality yield.
Now chromium and nickel are being used in the tanneries and hence it becomes difficult to standardize the effluent water as the ill effects cannot be removed.

The other major atrocity committed on the river is the quarrying of sand 10 folds above the stipulated optimum level by greedy businessmen and the same is sent to nearby states. It is highly unfortunate that the local population is used in this service specially women and children. They resort to assist this as they have no other avocation and means of earning because agriculture has totally failed and the soil has become uncultivable. If the sand mining continues at this rate the Palar belt is likely to become fully dried up and no recharge will be possible even during rainy season.
Now we turn to our Nxgen. We have very dynamic, hardworking, talented and enthusiastic Nxgen today. They are tech savvy and advanced in all walks of life. They use their brains and valuable trainings to serve other countries, make them prosperous and are termed very cost effective. But they don’t realize that the earth on which they stand is becoming parched and cracked.

The middle aged population stands silent spectators knowing well that what they leave to the posterity is barrenness, disease prone water resources and scarcity of quality vegetation. They also realize that if our rivers, lakes, wells and other water resources are preserved well, there my not be water scarcity.

India the largest democracy in the world is facing another election now. It is time the youth awake and strive hard to retain our resources intact. Let them bring home foreign exchange and boost up financial prosperity, but let not the motherland lose all the natural resources slowly because they do not show interest in preserving them thereby denying the benefits to the posterity. Let them take a consolidated effort so that the Newnxgen will be thankful to them.

I call upon the Nxgen and Newnxgen to have only one identity i.e., ‘I am an Indian’.


P.S. Photos from the documentary screened.