Lifestyle Pick (Gullak)

Save Money With Gullak for a Rainy Day!

Discover how the humble auspicious gullak is staging a discernible comeback in Indian households as a key secure vault or a safe custody. Is it time to reinstate the single mud pot to its former glory?

By PRAMITA BOSE

Green savings

Well, you are not hitting the jackpot here but you can never really ignore the presence of a prudent mud pot on the craggy racks inside an ordinary home that teaches you the first step of banking with your wee bit savings. With mindful, slow and eco-conscious living gaining momentum each passing day, conventional terracotta gullaks with a break-to-open design lend that organic, tactile feel.

Interestingly, it has no other outlet on its surface but a minute vent to insert a few good monies inside. But in the age of burgeoning e-commerce, seamless cashless transactions in real time or online payments with zero paperwork as well as the existence of digital currency or cryptocurrency, do gullaks manage to find a place in public consciousness! Are Indians still using clay pots to preserve their puny metal-alloy assets and printed paper banknotes in lesser denominations? The answer is a big YES.

People today still employ mud holders like copper red gullaks despite the ingress of virtual financial apps to save money and gain cashback rewards. Parents too hand over itty-bitty clay gullaks or plastic piggy banks to their kids to teach them patience, perseverance, discipline, control, value of money and the fundamental habit of money management in proper fashion over considerable years.

While the Gen X, millennials and the early cohort of Gen Zeeiites can clearly recall the presence of indigenous clay utensils like pots, pitchers, bowls, jars, vases and pans in their abodes, the new-age Alpha and Beta babies are absolute strangers to such kind of durable utility vessels that exude warmth and charm of the bygone eras. On one hand, the agrarian society of remote villages, rural districts and the suburban fringes continues clinging to the long-lasting icons of simple living, happy harmony and domestic peace, on the other, the cityscapes of metros, cosmopolises and small towns make a visible effort to revive the yesteryear lifestyle and ethos.

Indigenous craft

Albeit, a current-day domicile is run with smart gadgets or AI-aided hi-tech appliances, the attempt to sow the seeds of native customs and philosophy is hard to miss. Not to deny the fact that the erstwhile clay gullak could now be replaced with plastic, wooden or locking stainless steel piggy banks on the shelves, yet today’s caregivers and guardians try to instill their wards with the practice of recovering their hoarded reserves from a teeny coffer like a circular pot or a cute-looking piggy bank. This adds a substantial pedagogical and artisanry value as it is something to impart and learn from.

The original terracotta pot found shape layer by layer in local kumhar’s (potter’s) efficient hands on his wheel. They are bought and sold in local weekly haats (markets), craft fairs and at online stores. Modern-day gullaks come with a twist in handcrafted, designed and painted variety as creative workshops mushroom in every corner of the city with art instructors, avid enthusiasts and eager participants making such sessions playful and exceedingly exciting.

Ancient to modern India

The gullak is so deeply rooted in our culture and has been around as a landmark item since the medieval times of human civilisation, especially in India as a mitti ke samagri. It emerges as a wake-up call to remind us of our past ritual observed by our predecessors, lest we forget. It bears testimony to a significant legacy for generations.

Strikingly enough, gullak defines a sweet childhood memory of opening the first savings account and drawing money from it at the time of sparkling, colourful and elaborate festivals like Diwali or Eid.

It is an emblem of cottage economy built from the grassroots by local production hubs and worker communities. Earthen appliances are a model of rustic heritage and a grueling day’s honest labour by the sweat of the brow where paltry beginnings can scale a business to dizzying heights on a larger platform.

Saviour in distress

During the global health exigency of coronavirus, people not only lost jobs but also ran out of their hard-earned savings. Bank balances shrank, panic buying was at its peak, profit margins dwindled and salaries were delayed. At that juncture, gullak came to some hard-pressed people’s rescue. There’s always an emotional sentiment attached to it. Crushing the heavy pot loaded with a little booty with a crackling sound became the ‘new normal’ to extract fragments of leftover deposits to address the immediate necessities.

Small-town girl Uma reminisces utilising her clay-pot money that she had saved and carefully put aside for years to get her college admission. Village belle Rati too narrates almost the same story of gathering her limited resources from her gullak to make do with it for a minor part of her slim, intimate wedding arrangements.

Remain grounded

Despite the advent of digital remittances, the habit of putting and collecting funds in the commonly-spotted copper-red earthen containers keeps infants closer to their ethnicity and in touch with the soil.

“Customary red earthen pots lay the primary foundation of staying tied to our cultural roots. This offers a grounding bodily connect. In a hyper-digitised world, the earthy scent, weight and the ritual of throwing coins into clay foster an anchor, thus keeping children tethered to their inheritance and age-old values,” deduces ace psychiatrist and child behaviour expert Dr Shefali Batra.

Deferred satisfaction

“Saving slowly builds psychological resilience and regulation. Children these days have a problem of decadent luxury — instant indulgence and sinful pleasure. They just cannot wait till the appropriate time arrives. Depositing in a piggy bank is an incremental routine that trains their maturing brain to tolerate delayed enjoyment instead of demanding prompt prizes. Over time, they internalise patience and in due process, get to learn that slight, consistent, daily efforts can grant them assured and meaningful long-term results,” she diagnoses.

Mom knows it better

Every mother — be it a homemaker, a working professional or a mompreneur — is like the Finance Minister of one’s household. She pulls out the requisite amount from nowhere in times of emergencies. “Maa ko sab pata hota hai. I remember always resorting to my mum whenever I needed money desperately and she always kept it saved and ready for the rains. Thanks Maa for drumming into me the merit of money,” reveals financial analyst and advisor Maharshi Dave from Delhi.

Financial consultants evaluate that at a time when youngsters are leveraging fintech apps like ‘Digital Gullak’ big time for e-transactions (sans liquid cash or paper cheques), the quintessential earthen pot or a sealed gullak is making a perceptible resurgence to Indian residences as the initial baby steps to stockpile income, which might transition to a giant leap tomorrow as a fat capital. For even a drop in the ocean makes a helluva difference in the hour of crisis.

Gullak masterpieces

The art kit provided to both children and adults at a creative workshop contains tools, such as acrylic hues, paint brushes, a palette and aprons that aptly suit a gullak painting session. Do these creative programmes help deepen one’s focus by offering a tactile and fun-filled hands-on experience?

Ritika Gupta, event and marketing manager at Syona Experience art café that regularly hosts creative initiatives, confirms: “Yes, activities like these help one improve his/her concentration level as it allows him/her to zoom in on a single aspect. It is a relaxing break for both grown-ups and minors as it encourages them to find expression through creativity.” These are playful, sensory arts wherein one needs to view, touch and feel in detail from close proximity.

Good news is that gullak painting inspires kids to take a shine to the clay pots for conserving their pocket money. “It is really an exciting way to teach children about the art of micro-saving and how these gullaks were used by their ancestors, now handed down to posterity,” she volunteers.

FACTOID

With progression of time, gullak painting has evolved into a popular modern DIY craft like the stone-carved memory pots and school-college fiscal literacy drives. It deeply involves the artistic practice of hand-embellishing the Indian clay piggy bank.

Baked or unbaked gullaks are also considered an emblem of great success and good fortune as this auspicious element is linked to fertility. Adorning this soil produce for festive galas and wedding rites transforms a plain functional article into a sign of ushering wealth and revenue (Goddess Lakshmi) at the doorstep of a dwelling abode.

Incidentally, religious forums, festive organisers or non-profit charitable platforms too keep wooden chests at shrines and temples for inviting voluntary donations.

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