Karthik Jewellery Works

Working on Kanakapura Road in the Hrbr Layout area is always a bit frantic. Our spot is at 6th Main, 2nd Block, specifically No 22 near Tata Silk Farm. It's a mouthful of an address, but locals know the corner. I spend most of the day hunched over a small wooden bench with a magnifying glass. The air usually smells like polish and the little gas torch we use for soldering gold. It's not a big showroom with lights and air conditioning. It's more of a workshop where things actually get made. We have trays of loose stones and bits of silver wire everywhere. Sometimes a customer brings in a broken chain that’s been in their family for thirty years. We sit and look at the links to see if they can be saved. The traffic on Kanakapura Rd is constant, so there is always a background noise of horns while I’m trying to set a tiny diamond. It takes a steady hand and a lot of patience. My eyes get tired by four in the afternoon, so that’s when I usually take a break for a coffee. The neighborhood has grown a lot around us. We see a lot of the same faces coming in for repairs or to get something polished up for a wedding. It’s simple work, but it’s what we’ve always done. We keep the tools sharp and the bench messy. This place has been our home for a long time.