All That Glitters Is Not Gold — But Gold Connects Us to the Stars

 

photo courtesy

We often say “All that glitters is not gold” to remind ourselves that beauty and value aren’t always what they seem.
But have you ever paused to consider what real gold actually is? Beyond its soft gleam lies a story that stretches far beyond Earth — a story written in the heart of the cosmos.

Gold is more than a precious metal prized for its beauty or worth. Beneath its glow lies a legacy — a message from the universe itself.
We learn from physics that gold wasn’t born on Earth — not in volcanoes, nor in our planet’s molten core, but in the cataclysmic deaths and collisions of stars. In those brief, violent moments, immense energy forged gold and flung it across space.
Over time, as Earth took shape, those drifting atoms became part of it — tiny remnants of distant stars that burned long before our sun was born.

Every piece of gold we uncover today carries a celestial trace — a link to origins far beyond our knowledge and imagination.
Gold does not rust. It does not tarnish. It cannot be made by human hands or destroyed by human means — and so the total quantity of gold on Earth remains constant.

Once you know this, even the phrase “gold standard” feels different — as does the old saying that not everything that glitters can have the quality of gold.
Amid ambition and pursuit, it helps to remember that worth is not about sparkle, but about substance — and the grace to endure and last.

So the next time a glint of gold catches your eye, pause for a moment to realise —
you are, quite literally, holding in your hand a fragment of a star that shone long before our sun and Earth were born.

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Territories

 

Today, while driving to work, I saw a small bird chasing another along the road verge.
It was a brief, almost comic scene — wings fluttering, sharp calls echoing, one bird fiercely defending a patch of grass no larger than a few square meters.

It’s a familiar sight. We’ve all seen such encounters in gardens, on terraces, balconies, and those little spaces we like to call ours — or at least believe to be under our care. Birds staking claim to air and branches, drawing invisible borders only they recognize.

If one pauses to watch closely, these tiny territorial battles raise a curious question.
While I technically own the garden — having paid for the land, tended the plants, and built the fence that marks its edge — the birds are merely visitors.
And yet, within that same space, they draw their own lines, chase away rivals, and claim rights to crumbs and insects — by virtue of arriving first, or simply by strength and persistence.

It makes me wonder — isn’t it all an illusion for the birds?

And somewhere out there, across that tattered line, if there truly is a Creator watching this grand spectacle we call the universe, I can’t help but wonder what passes through that mind.
When they see us mark territories with deeds, boundaries, and borders; fight, grab, and even destroy in the name of land, faith, or power — claiming what we believe is ours more fiercely than any other species.

Because much like the birds, our ownership exists only within the stories we tell ourselves — stories that shift with time, circumstance, and power.

Perhaps, in the end, we too are merely unaware guests in a garden that was never really ours to begin with.

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Read Reflect Rejoice

Our Crime Master Gogo

"Aaya hoon, kuch toh loot kar jaoonga" is a dialogue from the movie "Andaz Apna Apna" and no one can do better justice to this than my 15 months old. To put things in perspective, this is one movie I do not mind watching every time it shows up on TV because of the sense of humour and comic timing and to sum it up, I find it entertaining. The music too is entertaining with a comic as well as retro flavour. I do wonder if Amir Khan and Salman Khan are together in another movie. The villains here are portrayed as a bunch of comedians rather than the usual ruthless killers. One such character is "Crime master gogo" which is played by Shakti Kapoor. Every time he showed up, his opening dialogue was "Aaya hoon, kuch toh loot kar jaoonga. Khandaani chor hoon. Mogambo ka bhatija, Crime Master Gogo" (Since I have come here I am not going to return empty handed.)

My daughter follows the same principle and so at times we affectionately call her "crime master Gogo". While awake, she is the busiest person in the house, doing something very important on her own, which we wished so much that she didn't. If she is not doing anything in particular, she will be stalking the house, looking for something to put her hands on. Till a few months back we had our home neatly arranged with many a object carefully placed at different levels to deck up the image but not any more! with every inch she gained in height, we had to come up with new ideas to relocate stuff and had to keep doing the disappearing act till we ran out of ideas and started to pack them off to be unwrapped sometime in the future. But the great thing about her is that she is not deterred by disappointments and setbacks. She approaches targeting one particular object but if we manage to move it before she reaches, she will settle for whatever else is available and never return empty handed. If we lift her up instead of moving the object she will try and grab something that is available at the higher level. Now that she has mastered the art of climbing a chair, we have moved them away from the dining table and placed them against the wall. We had her dining chair against the wall as well and I had to put her up there one day as she cannot get out of that by herself, so that she remains convict for some time while we ran some errands. But to my astonishment she was standing on the chair and fiddling with the door security phone very happy and very excited too. We let her play with the phone to her heart's content! Aaya hoon, kuch toh loot kar jaoonga..............

She has reinforced in me to thrive to make the best use of all available situation and not to give up.

Isn't this a wonderful philosophy!