Today I have the privilege to write something about the biggest passion of my life - DIAMONDS
I come from a jeweler's family & the passion for gems has been passed on by generations. Right from my childhood I am simply fascinated by the sparkle of diamonds. There are vivid memories of me and my sister enthusiastically sitting next to my father on a Sunday afternoon when he use to open his jewel box and keep these sparkles on our little hands. I used to try my level best to copy my father and see the diamonds through his lenses but that seemed a big task during those days.
Even after so many years when I pick a diamond no matter how small or big it is, I fall in love with its everlasting beauty. A gift by nature which was come into form a millions of years ago and will be there for millions of years after we are gone. Being academically inclined & even after completing my Bachelors in Computer Science, I pursued my dream career in diamonds.
Jewels have always been in our rich heritage. Whenever we look back in history we will find one thing in common, it is our passion for jewels. We are worshiping Gods with jewels,. ancient temples have stone carvings of jewels on the idols of deities. Diamonds are mentioned in various scripts too. One such story which hardly anybody knows today is of the famous Syamantaka Jewel .
The blog would be incomplete without mentioning the passion of Nizams of Hyderabad. There is one particular stone in his
collection weighing 185 carats known as Jacobs Diamond which was used as a paper weight by Mahbub Ali Khan. This exclusive diamond is currently owned by the Government of India and resides in some vault in Mumbai with a price tag of approximate 400 crores.
How can one not mention about the famous KOH-I-NOOR DIAMOND which resides on the crown of England. The HOPE DIAMOND is currently acquired by world renowned jeweler Laurence Graff.
If we look at the recent past, the rich heritage was carried well by the Maharajas of India. Many Indian jewels are displayed all across the world in various museums. Famous example is PATIALA NECKLACE adorn by Sir Bhupinder Singh Maharaja of princely state of Patiala. The list goes on and on.
The Daria-i-Noor is in collection of Iran crown jewels which was mined in famous Golconda mine in India. Weighing an estimated 182 carats .
Its colour, pale pink, is one of the rarest to be found in diamonds.
How can we replace the value of time and history, diamonds bring along with them. This value cannot be replicated by a diamond made overnight in a machine even though they represent the same molecular structure. I wonder in future a machine can copy and paint like Picasso but I believe original paintings will always hold their values. Lab created diamond's uniqueness is nothing compared to the rareness of a natural diamond. Diamonds are unique and are only gifted to the special people in our life.
India is one of the largest emerging economies. India's biggest strength is that woman has become more financially independent than before. No other accessory can replace the charm of a diamond. Leather accessories deteriorate with time (don’t forget about the process by which they are made), a watch too needs constant repair but natural diamonds can be passed on generations without even getting a scratch.
Recent confidence in natural diamonds has been shown by Bernard Arnault as he acquired heritage jeweler Tiffany & Co for a staggering 16.2 billion.
Very optimistic about an exponential growth in Indian diamond & jewelry industry.