It Started with a Bracelet and a Leap of Faith.....

A few days after the roof top phone call that catapulted me into descension…. I met a young, Indian man.  No… it’s not what you think. 

The rooftop where my life changed

It started with a bracelet.  It ended with trust.  

I don’t believe in coincidences.  I believe in serendipitous intersections.  Since that dreadful night in Jaipur… and now that I’m coming to attention in my life…. I’m aware of so many lovely, spine tingling convergences of people and matter and experiences and airflow.  The bracelet was a catalyst for one such serendipitous convergence. 

I love jewellery.  I love “in-your-face,” “not-for-the-faint-of- heart” jewellery.  I make art jewellery.   (www. giuliettadesigns.ca). I love to spend time with other people who make jewellery.  So… when I saw a gem stone bracelet... that I hesitated to afford...in a high end jewellery store in Jaipur, it started me thinking about deserving.  Do I deserve?  What do I deserve?  What do I deserve… when my world caves in?  Answer...  this bracelet!!!!  Nevertheless, with admirable discipline, I walked out of the store without the bracelet.  I took a photograph instead. 

The bracelet!

A day or two later, I was wandering with a friend through the maze of alley ways that make the outdoor market in Jaipur a surreal experience.  A man invited us to follow him to his store.  My friend is a kick-ass girl.  We’d been here before.  So we followed.

Across the busy street (taking our life into our hands)….  down the dark alley…. past the monkeys… through the ancient door…. up the stairs… and into a tiny, spare, austere store.  Greeted by boys and men. The norm here.  India is a country fuelled by testosterone.   My friend wanted earrings.  I wanted THE bracelet!

Monkeys, monkeys everywhere!  

The young man, Kapil, who served us wasn’t more than 25.  But, he’d already logged over 10 years in the jewellery business. He showed us lots of earrings.  And then… I thought to ask him if he could make MY bracelet.  He could.  For one-third the price of the one I’d seen at the jewellery store!

The rest of the story is a leap of faith… for both the young man and for me.  Me, trusting that he could make the bracelet I wanted, exactly from the photograph I'd taken...  before my trip ended.  He, trusting that I would pay him in full.  I gave him a 30% deposit.   He gave me a promissory note.  We would meet in Delhi in 30 days at my hotel.  He with my bracelet.  Me with his money.  Promises made.  Leap of faith taken.

For the next month as I toured India…. grieving….. head to my knees a good deal of the time…. thinking about deserving…. this determined, ambitious young man followed me with texts and photos showing the bracelet in progress. I was excited. 

Kapil's bracelet.... Diamonds, emeralds, rubies & sapphires 

It took Kapil 6 hours of driving from Jaipur to Delhi in a rental car to meet me at my hotel... with MY bracelet.  The bracelet he made exceeded my expectations.  It is exactly as it was in my photograph.  It is even more beautiful. At a time when I had little faith in menfolk…. this tenacious, courageous, young man… starting his business with conviction and determination….rekindled, reignited, revived... with a spark... my faith in men.  Little did I know when I ordered the bracelet 30 days earlier that the gift Kapil gave me wasn’t a bracelet.  It was a belief in the goodness of men. It was trust.   

       

Me, Kapil and the bracelet. Thank-you!