These days there seems to be a spate of articles in the FT about the turbulence in currency and commodity markets such as Katie Martin’s “The latest gold rush is an outbreak of huge overthinking” (The Long View, October 25).
When I made it financially, I bought a brick of silver (50kg) not yet knowing about portfolios and hedges and the like.
My “investment” came well packaged, wrapped in corrugated cardboard that was quite beaten up, and covered with stamps and other marks. Since there was tax on receiving it in New York state, I got it delivered to my mother-in-law’s in Massachusetts. She went to the post office to pick it up, and the postal clerk warned her it was heavy. My mother-in-law, being a potter, was not afraid of heavy things, but she said the weight knocked her off her feet, as it was passed across the counter.
Once home, the problem then was how to keep it safe. In the end I left it in its battered packaging, and used it as a doorstop to my study. And we sort of forgot about it until my elderly mother came from India to stay. And at some point during a discussion over dinner about raising a family, the tragedies and joys of life, what education means and the role finance plays, I slid over from my chair, picked up the doorstop, undid the jute string, and revealed my gleaming silver investment.
I saw a smile on my mother’s face that will live with me forever. Whatever it was — pride in my success, memories of dowries back in patriarchal India or just the glamour stirred by the sight of precious metal — it was worth every dollar and cent.
Sandip Tiwari
Professor in Engineering, Cornell University, Southport, ME, US