Manav Gems

Our shop, Manav Gems, is located in the Populat Arcade over on Tata Road. If you know the Opera House area, you know it’s always crowded and there is a lot of energy. We are at number 46. It’s a modest space, but it works for what we do. Dealing with stones and gems requires a lot of patience and good eyesight, which we try our best with. We spend most of the day sorting through things or answering the phone. It’s not like those big showrooms with marble floors. Here, it’s about the work. People come to us because they know we’ve been in the arcade for a while. Sometimes the traffic outside is so loud you can barely hear the customers, but that is just part of being in this part of town. We keep things simple. There’s no big marketing team or anything, just us handling the day-to-day tasks. If someone needs a particular stone, we look through our stock and see if we have it. If not, we tell them honestly. We’ve made a lot of friends in the building over the years. It feels like a little community in the arcade. We open up in the morning, have our tea, and get to work. It’s a steady rhythm that hasn’t changed much since we started. We just try to be helpful and keep the business moving forward. It’s a small life, but it’s ours.