What are your memories of jewellery
As a child, I was always interested in getting dressed up.
The women in my family were very simple. My grandmother had earrings, gold bangles, mangalsutra.
My mother, a few pieces more than that.
The first time we indulged in jewellery shopping properly was when my brother got married.
Your view on jewellery?
Jewellery has to be functional.
It has to suit you and how you see yourself wearing jewellery.
I am quite dressed up at work of course.
Dressing up is an everyday thing for me.
What we wore
What you wore was not a topic of conversation in our house.
Childhood was a lot about routine, learning good habits, being disciplined.
It was structured and sheltered.
What is your favourite piece of jewellery
I don’t associate jewellery with either of them because like I said, they were very simple with respect to jewellery.
They wore the seven-diamond earring, which is traditional.
Jewellery symbolises the stage of life, like the mangalsutra.
It gives away your status, like a crown.
If you could pass on a few pieces
My daughter tends to like rings and neck-pieces a whole lot. She also loves people.
I value a pair of nakashi gold earrings that I own. I have a set of bangles– two in silver and two in gold that are twisted, but not so close. It is more like a ribbon.
Can you tell us a little bit about your family?
I have always been in Chennai.
My grandparents were a huge influence. My maternal grandfather was a prominent politician and administrator. He was C. Subramaniam, India’s finance minister, considered the father of the green revolution.
My paternal grandparents were from Erode and equally committed to the country. They were the first doctors in the region.
If you could commission a piece of jewellery
I’ve reached a point where it is not about me anymore. Ten years earlier, I would have wanted a solitaire necklace, or a very precious old ruby necklace. As I have grown older, as I have seen and made more and more, my jewellery is more geared to whether my daughter will wear it.
I tell myself that if I don’t wear it, I don’t need it. I have learned to look at it, enjoy it and let it go.
That said, when I see the next gem, I do fall in love. The brain works again.
Jewellery completes how you look. It is very powerful communication. It always has been a communicator for most people.
What do you relish about the act of wearing jewellery?
I always wear my anklets. I have a set of three that I wear all the time.
At one point, an agricultural family would own gold. The marketing that diamonds have got, everyone wants to wear them. So the differentiators are gone. Everyone wants to look like everyone else. It has become the business of gold and diamonds and not really jewellery.
Who is the style or jewellery icon that you look up to?
I admired Elizabeth Taylor for her unapologetic love for jewellery. She wore it so well.
You have to stay true to your nature. If you like it go ahead and buy it.
If I had to pick one piece, I loved a piece in a store in Ooty called Big Shop or Top Shop. It was called a nagavadam. It was incredibly large but incredibly light.
How do you wear jewellery?
Daily. Depending on the outfit. I believe in dressing up. The days I am tired, I do prefer simpler jewellery.
Do you believe in the healing power of gems?
I do believe in the healing power of gems, but I think that it depends on how accurate the prescription is. I am sure there is a particular kind of ruby, set on a particular day, with a ceremony for wearing it. With the navaratna, certain gems ought to be set on certain days. With emeralds, you have to wait for a star, wait for certain days. There is a lot of protocol.
It’s like medicinal food.
Do you have a question about jewellery
I wonder how you empower a stone. I wonder about how you do an energy-cleansing on jewellery. I know people who will never buy anything old– because of the energy of the stone. They call it dosham. A flawless diamond may not be lucky for you. It all depended on whether the energies worked for you or not.
It is interesting to see that now we have made this art a science and boiled it down to a set of standards like VVS 1.
It is interesting to see that now we have made this art a science and boiled it down to a set of standards like VVS 1.
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