Travel Diary : The Gem Palace

Here I bring for you my recent travelogue that I penned after visiting the magnificent The Gem Palace at Jaipur....

“Rich and rare were the gems she wore,
And a bright gold ring on her hand she bore…

Irish poet Thomas Moore might have inked his ballad in the eighteenth century, but his words have a perennial essence. Be it the royal heiress from the Victorian era or the discerning new age society girl, her gems play her second skin and a mirror to her dignity. She chooses them with élan and nothing delights her more than a treasure trove left open to pick up what suits her bare senses.

An aficionado of gems and jewels myself, I thank my stars for making me discover a heaven precisely like that. The Gem Palace, situated in the heart of the pink city of India – Jaipur, is my recent exploration and I say it with pride!

The year that was

Established since 1852, reads the gold encrusted letters at the entrance of the huge palace like building of The Gem Palace, as one lands at the busy Mirza Ismail (M.I.) Road of Jaipur. Made in white marble and distinguished by Mughal-style minarets, this exquisite jewelry store is set inside a 200-year old haveli. It was the revered Kasliwal family of Jaipur, jewelers for over eight generations, who established The Gem Palace. The Kasliwals, in the year 1728, were appointed by Maharaja of Jaipur – Jai Singh, as his Crown Jewelers, and started operating in the confines of his fort. It was in 1852, when the Kasliwals moved out of the fort to their present M.I. Road haveli. Since then, The Gem Palace is the exclusive hunting ground for classy jewel lovers across ages. At present, it’s the eighth generation scion Munnu Kasliwal, who is the creative force behind Gem Palace’s inimitable offerings, and his brothers Sudhir and Sanjay, who manage the retail and wholesale ends of the business along with their cousins, Ajay and Pappu Kasliwal. Following the footsteps, Munnu’s son Siddarth and the ninth generation of the Kasliwal family too, has joined the league.

All that glitters

A life-size gold parrot, studded with diamonds, rubies, emeralds and pearls, made in the 19th century as a liqueur flask for one of the maharajas, price about $500,000. A chandelier for one of the Middle East Arab monarchs, made of 37,000 carats of rubies, sapphires, emeralds and 8,700 carats of diamonds, cost about $2 million. Spectacular Mughal-cut diamond necklaces, the traditional bell earrings or jhoomki strung with Burmese rubies, gold cuff lotus flower bracelets laced with pink and green tourmalines; parrot-shaped 22-karat gold and diamond rings with colorless diamond briolettes swinging from the bird’s beak, a 32-piece gold and diamond chess set, the list of wonders at The Gem Palace is endless.

Air breathes different from any other jewelry store in this bejeweled mansion. No salesmen rush to offer unwanted service and no walls are littered with garish displays of models advertising the jewelry. On the contrary, it’s the old world museum like feel which compels the explorer inside you for a quest. The store is actually spread across 4rooms, magnificently decorated, which you see as you progress inside. The dazzling master pieces shine bright against a velvet base inside the glass counters, on the floor and the cabinets on walls. The dim yellow lights that hang on each counter take you to the era to which the gems belong. Else than the jewels and the artifacts, walls are adorned with the framed pictures of the who’s who of the world who have been visitors and clients of The Gem Palace. After all, who would not flaunt an enviable guest list featuring Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, the beautiful Maharani of Jaipur - Gayatri Devi, Lord Mountbatten, Princess of Wales – Diana, Bill Clinton, Giorgio Armani, Richard Gere, Nicole Kidman along with a plethora of renowned gem collectors and lovers!

With such a global fan-following, the Kasliwals had no choice but to pamper their patrons beyond the city of gems Jaipur. The Metropolitan Museum and Barneys are the regular windows of The Gem Palace at New York, along with an exclusive appointment-only salon at Manhattan.

Moment of Truth

A shopaholic and a spendthrift, it was unlikely that I step out of the paradise without taking back some dust! My fascinations for rings took me to the gold rings’ section in the second room of The Gem Palace. As I started throwing my swarm of questions to one of the staff, Pappu Kasliwal quietly entered the room. Must be in his fifties, his elegance was empowering and his green eyes behind spectacles hinted royalty. As he answered all my queries and observed my interest in gold rings, he politely said something which not just distinguishes The Gem Palace from the rest retailers but puts it a notch higher than them too. “Madam, why don’t you try some gold rings at the jewelry store ten places down the lane? They specialize in gold and might offer better choices than us…”

I did go to that store but only to come back to The Gem Palace and buy the ring that had mesmerized me the moment I had seen it first. Art of salesmanship or pure belief, the demure Pappu Kasliwal surely knows that a customer who comes back once is a patron forever. Sitting pretty in my finger right now, this tiny diamond encrusted gold ring will always remind me of my splendid experience at The Gem Palace and the honesty and the confidence with which the Kasliwals have won a million hearts.