Saturday, May 02, 2009

the glittering golden day


this year akshaya tritiya was on monday 27th april.it is a very auspicious day.you don't have to see muhurtams or rahukalams.any time during this day is good time.whatever you do will be a success.akshaya means that it does not diminish. lord krishna in the mahbharata gives the famous akshaya patra to his cousins the pandavas who have no shortage of food in the forest because of lord krishna's unique gift. this is also the day when one of the avatars of lord vishnu,parashurama was born.

for the last few years i have been buying some gold on this auspicious day. on my own,i might not as i am not all that fascinated by the yellow metal.i don't wear a chain or a ring or anything in gold. gold for me is to be kept for a rainy day. with alternate investment opportunities having dried up due to the economic meltdown,i bought some gold driven more by emotion than any prudent investment decision.

kotak and icici are two banks who aggressively push the sales of gold during akshaya tritiya and deepavali. as a regular patron,i get some discount. the prices are also special to encourage potential buyers.a friend of mine tracks gold prices on a regular basis.he recommended that i buy and he also gave me a rosy forecast.some don't share his optimism.they say that as an investment it has more negatives than positives.they think it is a long term underperformer. they opine that once equity is back with a bang,gold will go on the backburner. i don't take any of these extreme views. in balance it is not a bad investment.i buy gold which is easily marketable, in the form of swiss made biscuits. i ended up the day with a big hole in my purse. the redeemimg feature was that it had found its way in a different form to my bank locker.

hona toh sona!

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