Mario d’Offizi went in search of the soul and spirituality that inspires the design and creation of jewellery in India. His journey unearthed a few other little treasures.IN DESTINATIONS

WORDS & PICTURES MARIO D’OFFIZI

india

MI have left India, but India will never leave me. My journey to that magical land to

discover the mysteries and inspirations of jewellery design began in Woodstock, Cape Town, in early February, 2008.

By chance I connected with Adi Cloete, who spent six months working in India at a jewellery institute. Adi co-owns

Firepetals, a jewellery studio in Woodstock, Cape Town and also teaches jewellery design. The inspiration of India, blended with an African touch, is evident in her range of exquisite jewellery.

“To me Africa represents the male and India the female,” she tells me. “In our creations, we combine the two holistically.”

LAND OF ADORNMENT, INSIGHT AND INSPIRATION

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Adi had won an international design award and the prize was a bursary to acquire the special skills of India. She spoke with nostalgia about her experiences, giving me insight into Indian jewellery design, its traditions and symbolic influences.

She also gave me contact names and numbers of design teachers at JDTI, (Jewellery Design and Technology Institute) in Noida, near New Delhi, where she had studied.

Adi urged me to make contact on my arrival in Delhi with her good friend Smita Singh, one of the senior design consultants teaching at JDTI.

Almost synchronously I was put in touch with Glynnis Arendse, also in Woodstock, and a few houses from Adi’s studio. Glynnis has friends in Delhi who would facilitate my trips to Jaipur and Agra, and anywhere else I might wish to go.

One of these friends, and also a business associate, is Mubarak, who is Kashmiri and with his family owns two jewellery stores, one in Pahar Ganj market in Delhi and the other, the “Head Shop” in Srinagar, Kashmir. The family also arranges low-budget tours throughout most of India.

When my publishing editor suggested that he have my hotels and transport pre-booked for my nine nights and eight days in India, insisting that it would be safer and more convenient, I declined. I had my own ideas. We compromised when I agreed to have my first three nights pre-booked to find my feet. I would go with the flow and wait for the unexpected to unfold.

The phrase “go with the flow” took on a new meaning from the moment I stepped from the plane, after a brief stop-over in Mumbai, into the cool air and the charmingly organised chaos of Delhi. Waiting at the exit of Indira Gandhi International were dozens and dozens of men holding placards, both handwritten and typed, bearing the names of the charges they had come to meet.

Hooters and horns assailed my eardrums as I searched for my name. When I found my host, who turned out to be the driver, he helped carry my luggage to a smart, black four-wheel drive. There I was warmly welcomed by Ashish Mondal, an impeccably-groomed young man who was the travel agent’s representative. Our “white knuckle” ride to the Hotel Good Times in Karol Bagh, Old Delhi, was a ride like no other I had ever experienced.

Wherever I travelled in India, rivers of vehicles of multiple descriptions, buses, cars, trucks, motorbikes, scooters, bicycles and beast-drawn carts, flowed together in seemingly total chaos. Tuk-Tuks (three wheeled scooter cars) carried hordes of passengers.

I saw young families of up to five persons, adults and children, huddling together on two-wheeled scooters. Hooters, horns and hand signals, along with great measures of patience, touches of tolerance and exceptional driving and anticipation skills, played out a madly cacophonic, disorderly, but fluid flow of traffic.

… the process of jewellery design in India is very spiritual, but the end result must be commercially viable!

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I recommend the following contacts who arranged my trip to, and within, India,

Trend SA Travel CentreTel: +27 (0)21 715257Fax: +27 (0)21 7152590.zubeidak.trendtvl@galileosa.co.za

Serendipity ToursTel: +27 (0)31 3015230Fax: +27 (0)31 3010976www.serendipitytours.co.za

Raj Travels (India)Tel: 0091 983 715 3415www.rajtravelsindia.50megs.com

On a shoestring budget, I highly recommend you contact Glynnis Arendse or Mubarak at indoafrikatravels@gmail.com or Younis on 0091 999 084 6214

CONTACTS

Over the next eight days, travelling up to five hours a day from place to place, encounter to encounter, it was to be the same. I never got used to it. But I never witnessed a single accident or any hint of road rage.

Almost every vehicle, camel or elephant I saw was painted and decorated in bright colours. Plastic flowers, beads, and statuettes or pictures of deities adorned the dashboards of vehicles. These embellishments seemed to add calm to the chaos.

I remembered one of Bob Marley’s lines: “… there’s a natural mystic flowing in the air, if you listen carefully …”

To assuage my growing fear as we wove our way through the insane traffic, I made conversation with Ashish, all the while sipping at my bottled water to wet my mouth and dry lips. I noticed that he was wearing three gemstone rings on his left hand. One on the little finger, one on the middle finger and one on his index finger.

I took special note of the pearl, set in silver, on his “pinky”. Nowhere had I ever seen a male wearing a pearl. When I asked, he told me that he wore a pearl to calm his anger and aggression. For the rest of the way I listened intently, asking questions to quench my welling thirst for this new-found knowledge.

En route to my hotel I saw three gray-white horses, adorned with decorated cloth flowing from beneath their saddles. Their riders looked almost surreal as their horses’ bridles and headgear glinted in the streetlights. Ashish explained that the men were on their way to their respective weddings, where their brides, adorned in jewels, would be waiting with family and friends for their arrival and happy celebrations. It was a traditional ritual. To prove that they are men, the grooms must ride on horseback to their brides, just as they would ride fearlessly into battle.

Ashish told me that one night in February 2007, close to 30 000 weddings took place in Delhi alone, and that this was a record in India.

I contacted Smita Singh, HOD, senior design consultant and winner of a prestigious international design award for a piece called “Pearl Row”. We met at JDTI in Noida, about 20 km from New Delhi, where she teaches.

My timing was perfect, Smita said. She and Ritu Malik, COO, were assessing students nearing the end of their first six months, as well as a few who were completing their final semester. I was asked to sit in on these appraisals and encouraged to share my views.

Over the next two days I am soaked in the soul and spirituality of Indian jewellery and design.

The students individually present the themes they have chosen, along with written rationales supporting their creative executions, their basic drawings and renderings (all by hand). They then reveal their designs, made, at this early stage, with basic materials like brass, copper, beads, jute, bamboo, coconut rings, leather strips, screws, rivets and bits of rubber. Smita and Ritu assess their work with total objectivity. They gently scold and criticise where necessary and compliment good work. They guide, nurture and encourage.

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Smita admits that some students got off lightly because she and Ritu are being polite in my presence.

Although profoundly designed, Indian jewellery draws its inspiration largely from nature, architecture and the little things in life, like feathers and rosebuds; teardrops and smiles. I am moved and inspired by the passion, dedication and confidence of most of the students. I remark how spiritual I find

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JDTI: enquiry@jdtiindia.com

Dr Shekar Vashishistha: drshekarvashishtha@yahoo.com

For Indian-inspired jewellery in Cape Town it will be worth your while to contact Adi Cloete: www.firepetals.cominfo@firepetals.comTel: +27 (0)21 447 2025Mobile: +27 (0)83 480 9671

JEWELLERY CONTACTS

this experience. Ritu tells me that “the process of jewellery design in India is very spiritual, but the end result must be commercially viable! This is drummed into the students so that they can become successful, not only in design, but in business.”

After sitting through over twenty assessments I meet Mr BK Narula, founder of JDTI, which I learn is a subsidiary of Silversmith India Ltd. The company also owns Niche, a string of retail outlets.

Mr Narula founded Silversmith India in 1999 with the support of the World Gold Council and many experts from the jewellery industry. It was his dream to bring quality education to the many creatively talented youngsters of India, he tells me, and so he established JDTI. (Accounting for one-fifth of the country’s total exports, the gem and jewellery sector is the forerunner of India’s burgeoning export trade.)

Expanding my insights into the traditional art of Indian jewellery, he says that in the past, Kaarigers (master craftsmen) inherited their expertise and

skills from their ancestors and handed them down, through the generations, from father to son.

“It is no longer necessary to have a family background in the profession, since training schools like ours are mushrooming all over India,” he says. The highlight of my visit to JDTI is my introduction to Dr Shekar Vashishista, head of the institute’s Department of Gemmology. Dr Vashishista is regarded internationally as one of the fathers of gemmology, and has been selected for an “Outstanding Scientist of the 20th Century Award” by the international Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England.

His awards, credits and achievements, like strings of precious pearls, are too many to list here; he has been credited with the discovery of significant diamond and gemstone deposits in India, including deposits of particoloured quartz, named Vashishthaite after him.

He invites me into his laboratory and for the next three hours has me enchanted and breathless in his world of gemstones. He explains that gems have been the object of man’s fascination ever since their discovery and that gemmology is a precise science.

He teaches me about the connections between the nine precious gemstones and their related planets, when and on which fingers to wear each gem, the professions each gem is best

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suited to, and the curative powers of each. For example, the ruling planet of the pearl is the moon. The pearl must be worn on the little finger and you must start wearing it on a Monday within two hours of sunrise. He tells me that, even if a pearl is deemed by an astrologer to be suited to you, you need to do the final critical test.

Take the pearl (stone only) and immerse it in a glass of water for seven days, after which, remove the pearl and drink the water. If you experience discomfort, then the pearl is not for you. Also the weight of the pearl should be between three and five carats; more than this adds to body weight.

I leave his presence overwhelmed and blessed. What astounds me most is his humility.

It is time to move on. I call Mubarak. I meet him in his little shop in Pahar Ganj, New Delhi over cups of steaming hot Kashmiri tea, where we plan my lightning-quick trip to Jaipur, in Rajasthan and Agra in Uttar Pradesh. Pawan, who speaks limited English, is assigned as my

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driver, guide and companion for the next four days and nights.

My first stop is Jaipur, known as the Pink City. I visit the City Palace complex with its awesome gateways and temples, outbuildings and courtyards. The architecture is breathtaking. That evening I take a crazy riksa (bicycle driven taxi) ride through the brightly lit, boisterous streets of this walled city, then book into a cheap B&B for a good night’s rest.

The next day I visit some high-class jewellery stores in and around Jaipur. Rajasthan is famous for its jewellery industry; one of the world’s biggest gem-cutting centres, it is India’s most important source of precious and semi-precious stones. It is also known for its silvercraft.

During my three nights and four days in Rajasthan I visit a succession of forts, like the famous Amber Fort and the Jaigarth, or Fort of Victory, where I see the world’s largest cannon on wheels.

But nothing in all my travels would move me as profoundly as the Taj Mahal. I strolled through the immaculate gardens in the outer perimeter, and lost my breath for a moment when I caught sight of the gleaming-white, domed palace. I knelt before a wall of the palace and kissed it. I do not have the words to describe the Taj.

After this whirlwind tour, I returned to Noida and spent more time with Smita and Nalin and the students. They took me to watch their little three year old boy perform at the Sri Fort Auditorium

in New Delhi. It was a four-hour show and children from the many branches of the playschool, Mother’s Pride, performed for us.

The event was programmed over three days, with two four-hour performances a day. It was an extravaganza where the children, in groups from their respective schools, dressed in traditional clothing and an array of costume jewellery, played out the various cultural groups and their respective histories. The theme was: “You are sho shweet”.

After dinner on my last night, I noticed a decorated frame bearing a photograph of a guru. Smita told me that he was a famous Swami, her and Nalin’s personal guru and founder of The Science of Divine Living. I was granted an audience with Swami Sri Ramkripalcharya ji in his study at home, which lasted almost an hour. He blessed me before I left his presence.

My last night was spent in Mubarak’s home where I slept on a rug on the floor in a room with a dozen members of his family. He gave me a silver OM ring and arranged a taxi to take me to the airport.

There is a consciousness and awareness amongst the people I met, especially the youth, that India is poised to become a world Superpower. From my experience, I have no doubt.

On bidding Smita and Nalin goodbye when I left their home, I remarked to them that India’s most precious jewels were surely her youth and her children.

Their lips, like rosebuds, blossomed into smiles.

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