The Gullak Is Back! Why Indian Households Are Falling For This Old-School Savings Habit

Rural Bharat still hinges on its modest gullak of minimal savings during fund crunch, while the urban India is re-noticing its worth as a safe-haven investment to take a fleeting break from digital banking. This could help one earn his pocket money timely or execute occasional transactions with small changes.

With autumnal festivities in full swing (Sharad Navaratri just culminated and the fiesta of lights and diyas Diwali is around the corner), a majority of dates on the religio-cultural calendar remain blocked to observe a slate of glittery events and idol worship amid a whole-hearted devotion and spectacular grandeur. It is this time of the year when you badly have the urge to splurge on shopping and hosting ceremonies with a wide spread. For that you need to unlock your safety deposit box or simply break open your clay piggy banks aka the traditional curvy cute gullaks (descending from the word golak meaning a round container) at home.

Back to basics

Typically it’s an Indian economic way of wisely saving money by storing away coins and meagre currency notes alias loose short changes inside pretty petite terracotta lockers — mostly uncoated with paints — that spell out nostalgia and earthiness of a middleclass aesthetic in desi households.

It’s a natural thrill to hammer the burnt red or brownish earthen pot and smash it into pieces as tiny coins and notes keep jingling out of it. This physical action and experience is so undeniably immersive and tangible. The gullak’s popularity continues unabated even in these digital times as a material form or an eco-friendly medium for families and their children in the heartlands to stash away their hard-earned savings.

Early birds

One may wonder if giving kids diminutive piggy banks teach them the importance of money from a tender age. Is it like a nursery lesson for them? Ace psychiatrist and child behaviour expert Dr Shefali Batra adheres to the adage: “if you start early, you learn early”.

“Yes I agree with the point that financial tools like gullaks in premature years may build money awareness by setting an example. After all, it’s the first bank that a preschool child comes across in its life at home. I see how ‘tactile saving’ teaches kids delayed gratification, to adopt a goal-setting approach and what significant value a piece of paper or a flat round metal carries,” she espouses.

It is a moral message for them, she feels, to save bit by bit and reap fruits from that action. It’s like planting and watering a sapling and view it grow in phases. “Witnessing coins accumulate visually transforms abstract numbers into tangible achievements, thus shaping mindful pecuniary habits and infusing impulse control that is likely to last well into their adult lives,” she sums up.

Delayed gratification

It is fascinating to note that this propensity of amassing money like pebble picking inculcate endurance and deferred satisfaction among today’s kids who want to snap up every item of luxury brands and comfort in a trice.

Small to large

Financial consultants evaluate that at a time when youngsters are leveraging fintech apps like ‘Digital Gullak’ big time for e-transactions, the quintessential earthen pot or a sealed gullak is making a perceptible resurgence to Indian residences.

“Well, in spite of the UPI gateway and digital gullaks, the earthen gullak is back because it teaches what an app can’t — discipline. One of my fondest childhood recollections is associated with dropping a coin into my gullak and listening to that fulfilling clink. Each sound felt like a minuscule win. A number on a screen is easy to spend, a coin or paper currency in a pot requires an effort to break. In a stressed situation, it’s that pint-sized means that saves your day. Digital wealth is for convenience, while a mitti ka gullak is for character and we need both,” opines Tapan Surana, financial controller, Team Pumpkin, a leading digital marketing agency.

Gullak masterpieces

The use case of gullaks nowadays might have shifted to a handcrafted artifact for home décor or for gifting purposes just like a showpiece or an objet d'art (art object). A riot of colours and motifs are applied to gullak painting.

Ritika Gupta, event and marketing manager at Syona Experience art café that regularly hosts creative workshops, informs that “a vibrant palette including red, pink, yellow, green, blue are painted on the sides of a gullak. The most common motifs in use for mud pot decoration are usually flowers or traditional Indian designs.”

Research reveals that an array of accents and patterns is incorporated in fashioning a gullak artwork. Tribal or folk styles like Madhubani and Warli arts, hand-painted cartoon and festive imageries, Gond art and Kalighat pat styles, floral and mandala art are widely recreated on gullaks.

Ancient to modern India

• The gullak is so deeply rooted in our culture and has been around as a landmark item since the medieval times of human civilisation, especially in India as a mitti ke samagri.

• It emerges as a wake-up call to remind us of our past ritual observed by our ancestors, lest we forget. It bears testimony to a significant legacy for generations.

• The original terracotta pot found shape layer by layer in local kumhar’s (potter) efficient hands on his wheel. They are bought and sold in local weekly haats (markets), craft fairs and at online stores.

• Modern-day gullaks come with a twist in handcrafted, designed and painted variety as creative workshops mushroom in every corner of the city with art instructors, avid enthusiasts and eager participants making such sessions playful and exceedingly exciting.

• Strikingly enough, gullak defines a sweet childhood memory of opening the first savings account and drawing money from it at the time of sparkling and elaborate festivals like Diwali or Eid.