Kusum Gems

Down at E5 in Jawahar Nagar is where you will find Kusum Gems. We are right near Satya Sai College, which makes it easy for people to find us. It’s a small shop, not like those big fancy jewelry stores you see in the malls. We have a couple of display cases and a workbench in the back. Most of the time we are sitting there with our magnifying glasses looking at stones. There’s a lot of fine dust from the cutting and polishing. We’ve been in Jawahar Nagar for quite some time now. The neighborhood is fairly quiet, except when the college students are heading to class. We don’t have a big security guard at the door, just a solid lock and some iron bars on the windows. It’s a family-run thing. My uncle started it and now I help out with the day-to-day stuff. We don't spend money on ads or big signs. People who know about gems just find us through word of mouth. Sometimes we spend hours just talking to a customer about a single stone. We keep some tea and biscuits for anyone who stops by. The lighting inside is bright because we need to see the colors of the stones clearly. It’s a slow kind of work. You can’t rush it or you’ll ruin the piece. We just enjoy the craft and being part of this local street. It’s a good way to spend the day. Sometimes the rain leaks in a bit, but we fix it. We just keep going.