Stones Rock! The amazing world of Sinnar’s Gargoti Museum

On my previous visit to Nashik, I was told about the mineral museum at Sinnar, an extended suburb, some 30 kms away on the Pune Highway. Short on time, i thought what would be of such great interest to go and see some stones and mineral pieces? Instead, the vineyards of Nashik beckoned me for a wine tour.

Six months later, while returning from a family trip to Shirdi, we came across Sinnar, and suddenly the thought of visiting the Minerals Museum crossed my mind. We drove up the MIDC industrial area, and after several twists and turns, we reached a smart looking building, which read the ‘Gargoti Museum’.

‘Gargoti’ means flintstone in Marathi, but you expect to see a dazzling display of precious and semi-precious stones, crystals and zeolites from around the world. Ruby, emerald, topaz, aquamarine, tourmaline, amethyst… you name them, you have them displayed at the Gargoti Museum.

Nature seems to have found a perfect way of hiding its underlying beauty inside the largely unattractive basalt rocks, found almost everywhere in the rocky Deccan plateau. That the museum recognizes the supremacy of nature is evident from the beautiful 13 feet tall statue of Mother India at the main entrance. 80 per cent of the collections in the museum are from Maharasthra, while rest are from neighbouring states, other parts of India, and other continents as well. Two of the collections are from even farther – from the Moon and the Mars, courtesy NASA.

Though the museum has a collection of all kinds of precious stones, the focus is on display of zeolites, with appropriate classification. Zeolites are ethereal creations of breathtaking colour and fragile structure. They are often formed when volcanic rock of specific chemical composition is immersed in water so as to leach away some of the components. Some of the zeolites are more precious than diamonds.

The Deccan Traps are one of the largest volcanic provinces in the world. It is also an authentic fact that zeolites found in Deccan traps are of superior quality than any other part of the world. Jalgaon in North Maharashtra is one such place from where high quality zeolites are procured. These minerals are obtained by a process of controlled dynamite blasting, held under expert supervision. The procured minerals are then cut, chiseled and washed by trained craftsmen before being put on display.

The Gargoti museum has been divided into two galleries. The Deccan Plateau, showing the best Zeolites found within India and The Prestige Gallery displaying the best national as well as international collections. Each display has a detailed footnote explaining its origin and significance, thus making Gargoti Museum an ideal destination for educational tours and field trips. The collection in the museum is of such high standard that some of its exhibits have even been displayed in world’s prestigious museums like Smithsonian Museum, the British Museum and the Carnegie Museum, among others.

The Deccan Plateau section on the ground floor has more than 1700 exhibits of rare specimens and intricate zeolites. Two full shelves have been dedicated for display of colourful calcite and cavancite minerals from the Deccan. Another cabinet displays a collection about a dozen dinosaur fossils. Within the Prestige Gallery on the first floor is the Parliament House, a semi-circular structure, which gives us an overview of the world of minerals. Not to miss on this floor is the naturally formed map of India in a stone. The most prized piece in Gargoti is a rock of apophyllite, stilbite and calcite measuring 2.2 x 2 feet and worth about $100,000. The entire collection in the museum is valued at over Rs 30 crores, but the owner insists, and rightly so, that the collection is priceless.

Gargoti Museum is the result of vision and hardwork of one man whose passion for minerals and crystals has taken him on a journey collecting stones and rocks from across the world. It honours 27 years of patience and consistency of K C Pandey – a passionate mineral collector and an enthusiast in his goal. A former Indian Navy engineer, Pandey is committed to work for preservation, collection and create awareness about India’s mineral heritage. His love and dedication for the subject found its bearing when he created "Gargoti", India’s only museum of its kind, on the Akshay Tritiya day of April 26, 2001.

K C Pandey’s obsession with zeolites began when he was 16, when his brother showed him the milky white apophyllite and orange stilbite minerals that were fused together. Enthused, he began hunting for zeolites around Mumbai and other places. In 1994, he participated in the Gems, Mineral and Fossil show in Tucson, Arizona, the world's largest fair of its kind. With his diverse collection, Pandey made an impact at the show. The visit was a turning point in the life of Pandey. He opted for an early retirement from his service with Indian Navy and concentrated on trading his collection in the international market.Few years later, Pandey initiated plans to set up a museum exclusively meant for zeolites. He chose to build it in Nashik, as the city formed part of the Deccan Trap

The Gargoti Museum is open 24 x 7, 365 days a year. However, you will need a prior appointment to visit between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. The Museum staff is cordial and knowledgeable and are always ready to explain a thing or two about the objects on display. They charge an entrance fee of Rs 100 for an individual and Rs 50 per head for a group of three or more. The admission fee, though steep compared to other museums, is worth its while considering the immaculate maintenance of the property. Within the museum, there is also a small shop, that sells precious and semi-precious stones, bracelets, necklaces, pendents, Gem trees etc.

After spending nearly 2 hours at the museum and seeing such a marvelous display of minerals and stones, one wonders why the museum has been named – Gargoti, a mere flintstone! K C Pandey says “it is actually a subtle way of saying that every pebble has the potential of great beauty - that many zeolites are found only when rocks are split open.” / Manish Desai

New symbol for the Indian Rupee

July 15, 2010 turned out to be a historic day, as the Indian Rupee got the much awaited symbol, just like other leading currencies of the world viz – Dollar, Euro, Pound Sterling and the Yen. The new symbol is an amalgamation of Devanagari –‘Ra’ and the Roman ‘R’ without the stem. Till now, the rupee was written in various abbreviated forms in different languages.

The new symbol designed by IIT Bombay post-graduate D Udaya Kumar, was approved by the Union Cabinet on July 15. "It's a big statement on the Indian currency... The symbol would lend a distinctive character and identity to the currency and further highlight the strength and global face of the Indian economy," said Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, while briefing the media on the Cabinet decision.

The new symbol will not be printed or embossed on currency notes or coins, but it would be included in the 'Unicode Standard' to ensure that it is easily displayed and printed in the electronic and print media. The encoding of the rupee symbol in the Indian Standards is estimated to take about six months while encoding in the Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 will take about 18 months to two years. It will also be incorporated in software packages and keyboards in use in India.

On March 5, 2009 the Indian Government announced a contest to create a symbol for the Rupee, inviting entries for the symbol, which would reflect and capture the Indian ethos and culture. Over 3000 entries were received, which were evaluated by a Jury headed by the Deputy Governor, RBI, which also included experts from three reputed art and design Institutes. The Jury selected five entries and also gave its evaluation of these five entries to the Government to take a final decision.

Uday Kumar's entry was the ‘Best of Five’. He will get an award of Rs 2.5 lakh and more than that an incredible fame, as the designer of the Rupee symbol. " My design is a perfect blend of Indian and Roman letters — capital 'R' and Devanagri 'Ra' which represents rupaiah, to appeal to international and Indian audiences... It is based on the tricolour, with two lines at the top and white space in between," a visibly-happy Kumar said.

The genesis of the word ‘rupee’ is in the Sanskrit word ‘raupya’ which means silver. Indian Rupee is variously called ‘rupaya’ in Hindi, ‘rupiyo’ in Gujarati, ‘roopayi’ in Telugu and Kannada, ‘rubai’ in Tamil and ‘rupyakam’ in Sanskrit. However in Eastern India it is called ‘Taka/Toka’ in Bengali and Assamese and ‘Tanka’ in Oriya.

India was one of the earliest issuers of coin, and as a result it has seen a wide range of monetary units throughout its history. There is some historical evidence to show that the first coins may have been introduced somewhere between 2500 and 1750 BC. However, the first documented coins date from between the 7th/6th century BC to the 1st century AD. These coins are called 'punch-marked' coins because of their manufacturing technique.

Over the next few centuries, as traditions developed and empires rose and fell, the country's coinage designs reflected its progression and often depicted dynasties, socio-political events, deities, and nature. This included dynastic coins, representing Greek Gods of the Indo-Greek period followed by the Western Kshatrapa copper coins from between the 1st and the 4th Century AD.

In 712 AD, the Arabs conquered the Indian province of Sindh and brought in their influence. By the 12th Century, Turkish Sultans of Delhi replaced the longstanding Arab designs and replaced them with Islamic calligraphy. This currency was referred to as 'Tanka' . The Delhi Sultanate attempted to standardize this monetary system and coins were subsequently made in gold, silver and copper.

In 1526, the Mughal period commenced, bringing forth a unified and consolidated monetary system for the entire Empire. Afghan King Sher Shah Suri (1540 to 1545) introduced the silver Rupayya or the Rupee coin. The princely states of pre-colonial India minted their own coins, all which mainly resembled the silver Rupee, but held regional distinctions depending on where they were from.

During the late 18th Century, agency houses developed banks such as the Bank of Bengal, The Bank of Hindustan, Oriental Bank Corporation and The Bank of Western India. These banks also printed their own paper currency in Urdu, Bengali and Devnagari languages.

For 100 odd years, the issue of bank notes by the private and presidency banks continued but with the formation of The Paper Currency Act in 1861, the issue of notes was monopolized by the Government of India. The Government of India (British India) initially appointed the presidency banks as their agents to help it with the circulation of bank notes as it was a tough job to promote the use of common note over a wide stretch of area.In 1867, the famous Victoria Portrait series of bank notes was issued in honour of Queen Victoria. The notes in the series were uni-faced and were issued in 5 denominations.

The Reserve Bank of India took over the authority to print and circulate banknotes from the Government of India in1935. The notes bearing the portrait of George V was replaced by the notes bearing the portrait of George VI in 1938. The notes with the portrait of George VI were in circulation till 1947 and were taken off the money market with the independence of India. The Lion Capital at Sarnath replaced George VI.

Indian rupee did not use the decimal system and rather was subdivided into 16 annas till 1957. In 1957, the decimal monetary system was adopted and one unit of rupee was restructured equivalent to 100 equal paise. In 1996, the Mahatma Gandhi series of paper notes was introduced, which is currently in circulation.

In order to overcome the challenge of the counterfeit currency, several security features have been incorporated in the Indian Rupee. White side panel of notes has Mahatma Gandhi watermark. All notes have a silver security thread, with inscriptions ‘RBI’ in English and ‘Bharat’ in Hindi. These inscriptions are visible when held against the light. Notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 have their numerals printed in optically variable ink. Number appears green when note is held flat but changes to blue when viewed at an angle. The language panel on Indian rupee banknotes display the denomination of the note in 15 of the 22 official languages of India. They are from top to bottom – Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu.

Rupee is the name given to the official currency that is used in several countries including India, Bhutan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Mauritius, Maldives and Indonesia. Among all the countries mentioned above, the Indian rupee is the most important with respect to value, preference and popularity. Acquiring the new symbol, the Indian Rupee now finds a place with the world’s leading currencies – Dollar, Euro, Pound Sterling and the Yen, which also have symbols. The new symbol, also heralds emergence of a new, confident India, with a special place in the world economic order.

VECHAAR – a unique utensils museum in Ahmedabad

From time immemorial, Indians have displayed their artistic genius on various tangible items of everyday use. Cooking utensils and other kitchen ware are no exceptions. In fact, utensils are so much part and parcel of India ’s household heritage, that most of us draw inspiration from the story of Draupadi’s Akshay Patra from the epic Mahabharata.

How about a chance to see the cooking utensils of the past preserved in one place ? In other words, visiting an Utensils Museum !. Surendrabhai Patel of Ahmedabad has attempted and succeeded in building such a museum at his famous Vishalla village retreat that serves traditional Gujarati cuisine in an authentic village setting.

The museum is part of the Vishala Environmental Centre for Heritage and Arts (VECHAAR) founded by Surendrabhai Patel, an interior designer by profession. It has on display more than 2000 traditional utensils of all imaginable sizes and shapes

The idea of the Utensils Museum occurred, three years after the inception of Vishala in 1981. Surendra Patel had gone to a metal market in Saurashtra, in search of old utensils to give an ethnic touch to his restaurant. There he came across craftsmen who were flattening and melting hundreds of utensils, including a huge dinner plate, to get its worth. The sensitive designer was moved by this incident. He felt and understood what we were losing in the process – our heritage, creative work revealing the brilliance of human skills, the wonder of man's creativity!

Without wasting time, he consulted his friend Dr.Jyotindra Jain, a research scholar, who not only welcomed the idea but also gave valuable suggestions. Patel began the work in a mission mode, corresponded with museums – both national and international, visited and studied several of them, traveled around the country, scouting for displays and after years of hard work, the VECHAAR Utensils Museum took shape.

But, Patel’s museum is a refreshing departure from the conventional museums, we are familiar with. His museum maintains a consistent touch with the design of Vishalla, and gives a village-like feeling. A simple, muddy lane takes you to VECHAAR and ends in front of a large hut-like building. The architecture of the hut-like museum building is quadrangular in shape, mud plastered all over, like a hut.

One more distinguishing characteristic is that unlike other museums where the items are kept shielded in some case, here they are put in open, in consistent with the barrier free theme of Vishala.

You can see the beauty in the well conceived and crafted everyday things like pots to store water, utensils to cook and serve, spoons, rolling pins, or a huge vessel in which buttermilk is churned. Each piece was created by artisan for a specific purpose, catering to a person’s every day need. Apart from the innumerable brass, bronze and copper ware, there over 600 betel-nut crackers on display, each one more aesthetic than the other. An array of water containers – or lotas, displays high level of craftsmanship. The collections are from all over – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and even Central Asia .

In short the museum captures the magnificence of human spirit, the brilliance of vision, the perfection of skills and the wonder of creativity. The museum is a tribute to the creative efforts of man from the humble potter to the master craftsman. The collections also show the inherent and unique feature of man’s capacity to express and communicate. The objects represent a superb balance of art and craft. Impressed by the good work being done by VECHAAR, the Ministry of Tourism had sanctioned a Rs 5 lakh grant for museum’s development.

For people of today’s plastic age, household utensils are nothing more than things to be used and stashed away. But Surendra Patel’s unique utensils museum proves otherwise. It reveals the charm of yesteryears and a high sense of aesthetics combined with utility.

If you are a tourist in Ahemadabad, make it a point to visit the utensils Museum . It offers a unique experience of revisiting the life and lifestyles of past eras in these quaint outskirts.
Address : VECHAAR Utensils Museum, Vishala Village Retreat, Vasna Toll Naka, Ahmedabad. (PIB Mumbai Feature *with inputs from Bhavana Gokhale, MCO)

BSE SENSEX IS NOW 25

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex, the barometer of India’s stock market fortunes, has entered its silver jubilee year. It was launched on January 2, 1986 with 30 most actively traded stocks of that period, with 1979 as the base year. Today, the 30 stocks on the BSE Sensex, account for around 1/5th of the market capitalization of the Bombay Stock Exchange

There are more than 4,700 companies listed on the BSE, making it the biggest stock exchange in the world on the basis of number of listed companies. But not all stocks are actively traded. Even fewer are significant pointers of the trends in the market and the economy.

At the launch of the Sensex, the Bombay Stock Exchange had said that "the absence of an index number of equity prices to reflect the general trend of the market was felt for a long time by investors and also by newspapers who do not compile their own index numbers”.

What is Sensex ?
The Sensex is a value-weighted index and is calculated based on a free-float capitalization method. This is a variation from the earlier market capitalization method, as instead of using a company’s all outstanding shares, only the shares that are readily available for trading are used. The free-float method, therefore, does not include restricted stocks, such as those held by promoters, government and institutional investors. This method was introduced w.e.f September 1, 2003, to serve as a true indicator of market sentiments.

The calculation of SENSEX involves dividing the free-float market capitalization of 30 companies in the Index by a number called the Index Divisor. The Divisor is the only link to the original base period value of the SENSEX. It keeps the Index comparable over time and is the adjustment point for all Index adjustments arising out of corporate actions, replacement of scrips etc.

From its early days in 1986, the Sensex has traveled a long way and has increased by nearly 35 times to the present. On the first day of trading on April 1, 1986, the Sensex had closed at 549.43. It opened its silver jubilee year trading at 17,467.

Composition of the Sensex
The composition of the index too has undergone change many times as only 11 of the original 30 companies continue to be part of the Sensex.

In 1986, Sensex comprised – ACC, Bombay Dyeing, Ballarpur Indsutries, Ceat Tyres, Century Spinning, Food Specialities (now Nestle), Great Eastern Shipping, GSFC, Glaxo, Gwalior Rayon (now Grasim), Hindustan Aluminium (now Hindalco), Hindustan Lever,(now Hindustan Unilever) Hindustan Motors, Indian Hotels, Indian Rayon, ITC, Kirloskar Cummins, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra, Mukand, Pieco Electronics (now Philips), Premier Automobile, Reliance Industries, Siemens, TELCO (now Tata Motors), Tata Power, Tata Steel, Voltas, Zenith.

The present composition comprises ACC, BHEL, Bharti-Airtel, DLF, Grasim, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Hero-Honda, Hindalco, Hindustan Unilever, ICICI Bank, Infosys, ITC, Jaiprakahs Associates, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti Udyog, NTPC, ONGC, Reliance Communications, Reliance Industries, Reliance Infrastructure, State Bank of India, Sterlite Industries, Sun Pharma, TCS, Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata Steel, Wipro.

The changed composition in itself narrates the new dimension acquired by the Indian corporate sector. India’s pre-eminence in the IT world is highlighted by the presence of its big three IT-ITES companies – TCS, Infosys and Wipro. There are five Public Sector entrants, unlocking the hidden opportunities thanks to the policy of disinvestment. While presence of three Reliance companies reflect on corporate splits, the inclusion of Bharti-Airtel, DLF, Jaiprakash Associates and Sterlite signify the arrival of new corporate giants. Making way for the new entrants are the bigwigs of the yester years – viz : Bombay Dyeing, Century, Hindustan Motors, Premier Automobiles , Great Eastern Shipping etc. A cursory look at the Sensex companies of the past and the present clearly defines the sun-rise and sun-set sectors of the Indian economy. The new composition also indicates the decline of over-bearing presence of Mumbai headquartered companies, which accounted for over 75 per cent in 1986.

SENSEX over the years.
It took more than two years for the Sensex to cross the four digit mark. On July 25, 1990 the Sensex for the first time closed at 1001 points. It began to pick up momentum, with a slew of economic liberalization measures announced in 1991 by Dr.Manmohan Singh, the then Finance Minister of India. A market friendly budget of 1992-93 and expectations from a liberal import-export policy helped Sensex surge past 4,000 mark by March 1992, before the Harshad Mehta scam hit the market. Y2K coincided with the information technology boom, and the Sensex crossed 6000 in the year 2000. Around 2005, Foreign Institutional Investors became active on the stock market and the Sensex crossed the 8,000 mark on September 8, 2005. February 7, 2006 was a golden letter day for the Bombay Sensex, as it crossed the 10,000 mark and closed marginally above. Little more than a year later, Sensex doubled again and breached the 20,000 mark on October 29, 2007. It touched 21,078 on January 8, 2008. Then the signs of global recession began to surface and the US sub-prime crisis hit the market hard, when several Foreign Institutional Investors began off-loading their holdings. It has now begun to stage a comeback.

Importance of stock indices
It is often stated that the stock market indices play an important role in gauging the economic health and progress of a country. It all began with the construction of Dow Jones Transportation Average in 1884. Today, across the world we have several stock market indices. Notable among them being – the S & P Global, Dow Jones, FTSE, Hang Seng and Nikkei. Despite their overwhelming popularity with the investors, they have also been targets of criticism on many counts. There are plenty of incidences of rigging, corporate corruption, artificially over-valued stocks, conflict of interest of research firms, which cause volatility in stock markets and dent the images of indices as ‘true and fair’ reflectors of company’s health.

Yet, Stock Markets and their indices continue be important. Stock markets provide the much needed liquidity in the economy. The two stock market indices from India, the BSE Sensex and NIFTY have helped put the Indian Capital markets on the world map. The growing presence of Foreign Institutional Investors is integrating our markets with the global markets. Let the march continue./ mandesa / 04.01.2009