In 2000, when she lost it, gold was priced at Rs 4,400 a sovereign. It is today, more than Rs 40,000.
MGNREGA workers with Narayani
Narayani velyamma* had lost her gold earring in a paddy field outside her home 20 years ago. She lived in a place called Edampooradi in the Bedadka panchayat of Kerala’s Kasargod district. Narayani had bought it after giving away three ‘para’s of paddy rice (one para being roughly equivalent to eight kilos) many decades ago. But luck or rather the work of women farming in the field 20 years later would bring back the lost earring, now worth ten times its price in the year 2000. “A few women – workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme – were ploughing the paddy fields as part of the Subiksha Keralam project. That’s when one of them called Baby unearthed the earring. It was covered in mud but they understood it was gold. One of the women with Baby happened to be Narayani’s daughter Malini and she recognised the earring as the one her mother had lost in 2000,” says Padmavthi E, district panchayat member. Narayani is believed to have bought it 60 to 70 years ago after saving hard from all the farming she did. The loss of the jewellery in the year 2000 was a story that all of the neighbourhood knew. They had all searched for it for weeks in vein. So when the women found this piece of gold in the same land, there was no doubt who it belonged to. They washed the earring and took it to Narayani, who now lived a little further away, after her old house was demolished. Narayani, in her old age, received the unexpected discovery with joy. In a green lungi and blouse, she sat on a chair as the women put the gold in her hand. In 2000, when she lost it, gold was priced at Rs 4,400 a sovereign. It is today, more than Rs 40,000. Padmavathi put the story on Facebook and it didn’t take long for it to go viral. (* velyamma is respectful term for old woman in Malayalam) Also Read: TN panchayat secy suspended for stopping Dalit panchayat leader from hoisting flag
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