How Kerala turns asset into a liability

Hey there, this is Visakh and this is the next article in the series on Minimalism. Minimalism or Essentialism is the concept of living with the necessities in life. It’s something that has to be experienced rather than spoken about. The peace it derives is immense but only if you are up to it.

Today we talk about our age-old asset — Gold. Southern India especially states like Kerala go crazy when gifting gold. You might be familiar with the jewelry ads where we play the game of “spot the girl” covered in gold during weddings. Yes, and that is a reality. People gift an entire jewelry shop to the girl child during their weddings. The weddings are coupled with a lot of other crazy stuff like — “save the date”, “fancy groom cars” and so on. None of which adds value to these events in the actual sense. In the race to show off one’s caliber, marriages these days don’t even have a basic “melam” which actually gives a sense of the auspicious event. Anyways marriages are a different topic that might require a long series of articles.

The Bride’s Father
A typical family saves a lot of money or loans it during marriages. This is in different forms right from mortgaging property to selling off valuables so that they can buy gold for their children. The father who is the “beneficiary” of such “loans” spends another good portion of his life paying it off because…