Thursday, November 07, 2013

A lesson at the goldsmith's workshop.

The other day I visited a goldsmith's store in Mylapore to repair a pendant. In my usual curious self, I pulled out a stool and saw him get to to work, watching him align the pendant on some sort of a white colored, slate-like material, lighting a miniature gas cylinder, lighting it and then directing the but flame through a right-angled metal pipe on the pendant so that the materials fuse. 
As the metal came in contact with fire, I saw it gaining sheen immediately. 
And he said most metals become brighter when they come in contact with fire. 
I wonder if we too are similar in some way. A lot of times when we go through a trial-by-fire sort of a situation, we (at least most of us) come out unscathed, emerging brighter than we were before. 
Maybe there is a lesson to learn from a metal. Or even from a conch shell. Sangu suttaalum venmai tharum.. Have heard this in school when I heard students repeating in chorus after the teacher, from an adjacent classroom. 

2 comments:

Sri said...

Beautiful words!

I remember one of my teachers saying that a rock undergoes so much pain when being chiseled but when it becomes a beautiful statue, the whole world appreciates it..no one would have bothered about a rock..

Krishnan NS said...

This is common for many metals, including harder metals like Iron & Steel. Apply heat to soften them up and mold it to our liking.

In short, put the person on fire to get the best out of him/her. But not too much fire, else he/she will break :)