Gopi Sunar (An Imagination)

Gopi sunar was a childhood friend of Billu. They were very close when they were little, but afterwards their friendship declined and they went separate ways with their lives. Both of them got lost in what their respective fathers used to do. Gopi became a sunar (goldsmith) and developed a concentration of the eyes and deftness of the hands that is essential for a sunar to succeed, and billu as you know, became a clever shopkeeper whose shop became a heaven for Manu, golhu and other children. 

Gopi became a very successful goldsmith, surely the best of Kharkhoda. His profits became unmatched. As Gold and money flowed in his bank accounts, he became increasingly what he already was much - more accurate in the movement of his eyes and measurements, more deft in his handling of gold, but also he started becoming a little wild and a little crazy like a scientist. Something about his appearance - he was almost bald with little hair on his head above his ears, and had a charlie chaplin like little moustache, he was thin and looked older than his years. These hair became more and more like a bird’s dishevelled nest as he grew more crazy. He used to look at people and he would see gold and cash walking, he used to have dreams of oceans of gold coins, of the moon being a silver plate and the sun being a great gold shield.

To the people, it looked as if he was becoming something else - not a human, but a fine robot machine, people at that time had never heard of robots, so they were in awe of this first time phenomenon.

Then, one day, Gopi sunar started dancing in his gold shop, dancing like an absolute madman, like a dervish, he threw the coins in the shop everywhere, all the jewelry he simply threw in the streets outside, all the precious things to buy in his shop were now in the streets or in the street side drains. People, the people of Kharkhoda, looked at him and saw a twinkle in his eyes. He declared in this state that his love for money was now absolute, and has turned into the love for Laxmi goddess…

© Manan sheel.