Heera Jewellers

Kucha Mahajani is always a mess of people and carts. Our shop, Heera Jewellers, is right in the thick of it at number 1245. Chandni Chowk has its own way of working, and we’ve been part of it for a long time. Every morning starts with cleaning the glass cases and getting the shutters up. It gets really loud outside with people shouting and rickshaws squeezing through. We sit here for long hours. Most customers are people we’ve known for ages, or their kids coming in now. We keep things simple. There’s a guy who brings tea in small glasses every two hours. We don’t have fancy air conditioning that works all the time because the doors are always opening. Dealing with gold and stones is just our daily routine. It’s not as glamorous as people think when they see the finished pieces. There’s a lot of dust from the street that we have to wipe away constantly. The back room is where the real work happens, with the tools and the small lamps. We don't use big computers for everything; mostly it's just ledgers and old notebooks. By the time we close, the whole market is finally starting to quiet down a bit. It’s a tiring job but it’s what we know. We just focus on the pieces in front of us. Our hands get dirty with polish and metal dust, but that is part of the trade here in the old city.