My Nani’s Paijeb
As the oldest of three sisters, Nani was given the heaviest and most exquisite paijeb out of the collection, on 8 March, 1969, her wedding day. This pair of payal has been in my family for more than 160 years now.
In praise of the handmade
One such treasure is what my paternal grandfather, Rishabh Chandra Jain, made for me many years ago when I had just finished college. A small neckpiece that he fashioned from some loose beads and a piece of stone that no one was using and that simply lay in an insignificant box in the house for a long time.
Muniya’s benda
Benda is a common term used for a maang tikka in central India and Uttar Pradesh. In 1961, Mrs Prakashwati Misra, my great-grandmother, travelled all the way to Lucknow from Raipur by road to get this made for her daughter-in-law.
Goynar Baksho: The jewellery box
My grandmother gauged that this box was bought somewhere around the year 1940 in Benaras. My great-grandma used the box until her death and then, her son [and my maternal grandfather], gifted the box to his wife, my grandmother, to use it as her jewellery box.
From the hills of Uttarakhand
This necklace, called a janjeer in Kumaon, weighs 350 gms and is nearly 70 years old. Presented originally to my grandmother during her wedding in the 1950s, it was passed down to my mother in 1979, and to me in 2011.