Our Two Rings

 

India is full of surprises, every corner we turn, every new place we visit, we are constantly surprised by what reveals itself, and you can be sure, we have no idea what's coming next!  Ordering lunch at a little snack shop the other day we were refused what we ordered because the guy behind the counter thought that another of his snacks was better, so we needed that instead (and he was right).  After lunch we ventured into the old fort in Jaisalmer not really knowing what was coming next.

Wandering around with the usual hustle and haggle going on around us we found ourselves going through the Royal Palace with an audio tour blaring in our ears (it was actually a pretty good tour surprisingly) learning all about the Rajasthan of old and how the Raja's went about their days.  It came as no surprise that at the end of the tour there was a shop and someone asking us to come and have a look at his goods.

Being in a relaxed and pretty chipper mood we agreed to check out what he had on offer, and what a surprise we were in for!  Devilin (not sure on the spelling sorry!) would have to be the friendliest and probably most talkative Indian we've met so far.  We seated ourselves in his small little room/ store sceptically not knowing what was coming and what tactic might be used to part us from our money (other "business men" in the area were openly calling out " give me one chance to rip you off" and "let me help you spend your money" with a laugh and a smile, but some small bit of intent also).

However once Devilin brought out the silver rings that his family has become famous for we were interested to know how this all worked.  The father of the family became famous for his detailed cutting and engraving, so much so that the Raja ordered many pieces of work, enough that a friendship formed between them, hence the shop in the actual Palace.  On passing away, his family of eight sons stepped up and took on the business which is booming.  The prime minister of India was also impressed by the work and met with the father and was as keen as us to see the intricately painted grains of rice and to top that, a piece of beard hair!  Yep, Dad was apparently keen to show his skills so he plucked a hair from his chin, then painted and engraved a picture of Shiva on it.  You need a microscope to see the details, but its all there, and all in the right places too!! Amazing, and wouldn't have believed it if it wasn't for my own two eyes.

But back to the rings.  Before us was an array of carved, engraved and shining rings with tiny figures of camels, the 7 wonders of the world, city landmarks and all sorts of animals.  By this stage we were interested, but the hook was set when we found out you can design your own custom ring.  All of this appeared through about 2 hours of conversation, jokes, questions and a bit of banter, not once was there the expectation to actually buy something.  But what would we put on it??


Being half way through our trip we opted to make it a momento of  India, so decided on mountains, a tent, a river, cycle rickshaw, camel, Taj, Chai/ food dhaba, tree, and sunset. All the things we love about it.  We put in our rough plan and were told to come back in a couple of hours to meet the artist brother who would finalise the design.

So back we came, another cup of chai, then off to watch the sunset from the other shop, another chai, more talking, more questions (mostly from us, as Devilin was happy to answer any question), then off to the family home.  The process of questions, chai and more chatting repeated itself, then it was back to business.  The design was settled on, fingers were measured, silver was cut to size, and our little souveniers were taking shape. Then came dinner.  On the lounge room floor, and we were back into the conversation like we'd been friends for years.  The whole experience was fantastic and we learnt so much about India, stuff we hadn't even thought about before.  And of course it all happened again 4 days later when our rings were ready to be piked up!  Service like this doesn't happen in too many places, thank goodness, or we'd be 20kg heavier from all the food!