Adinathgems

You have to find Haldiyon Ka Rasta in Johri Bazar first, which is already a task because of how narrow the lanes are. Then you look for Kalayan Bhawan. We are on the second floor, in room 204. Our address is officially H.N.-145-152. It’s a bit of a maze in here. Adinathgems is a small operation. We spend most of our time under a strong lamp, looking at stones through a loupe. The room is small, and we have bags of gems sitting on the wooden desk. Sometimes it’s rubies, sometimes it’s something else. The stairs up to the second floor are narrow and made of old stone. You can hear the noise from the market downstairs—people bargaining, carts rolling by, and the general chaos of Johri Bazar. We have a small safe and a couple of chairs for when someone comes to visit. Usually, it’s other traders from the same building or the one next door. We drink a lot of chai throughout the day. The windows don’t let in much light because the buildings are so close together, so we rely on our desk lamps. It’s been this way for years. We don’t have a website that we use or any big advertisements. People who need gems know how to find us in Kalayan Bhawan. We just do our work, sort the stones, and wait for the day to end so we can head home to our families. It is a very specific kind of life.