‘Gold diggers’ hope to make big buck from muck

JAIPUR: Crouched above a stinking open drain, 18-year-old Faizal carefully tilts his pan and peers into its bottom as he rubs his hands in sludge, hoping to find a shimmering speck of gold in thick muck, that may have been accidentally flushed into the drain by jewellers while cleaning their shops.
For past several years, mornings at Barah Gangaur Ka Rasta in the old city see ‘gold diggers’ like Faizal, sit alongside the open drain and look for gold in sludge and muck.
“There are many small workshops where employees cut and sharpen gold and silver to make jewellery. Every evening, the workers clean their hands with water, and sometimes specks of gold dust directly flow into the drain,” said Suresh, a local resident.
According to an urban legend, several years ago, an elderly sweeper was tilting and swirling his pan and he stumbled across a shining emerald which was accidentally brushed into the drain by a jeweller while sweeping his shop. “The jeweller agreed to pay thrice the cost of that precious stone to the elderly sweeper. This tale continues to attract workers from faraway places like Bihar and West Bengal to search for a tiny speck of gold here,” Suresh said.
If the legend of the elderly sweeper who became a millionaire overnight was not enough, there are vendors like Jeetendra (name changed) who look for gold in the drains every morning to help send his kids to an “English medium school.”
“I wake up at 6am and head to the market with my pan, a brush and detergent. I pour thick sludge into the pan and rummage it carefully. If I spot a shining particle, I carefully separate it from the waste,” he said.
Some workers said that if luck favours them, they can walk home with about Rs500 a week, by selling off these residues of gold and silver. “Many factories are located on the second floor; their drainage is connected with a pipe which opens into the drain below the street. They clean the factories every day and usually, a tiny speck or two from the instruments flow into the drain,” said another worker, as his fingers laboriously sift through the drain.