Family Jewels

Vihari Poddar founded her eponymous jewellery brand in 2006, but her family's history in gems goes back at least four generations. The founder of Vihari Jewels discusses the struggles of those who came before her and how she is honouring them while paving her own way  

- Annabel Tan

Precious gems have been at the heart of Vihari Poddar’s family for generations: she runs her own jewellery brand, Vihari Jewels; her father is the founder of diamond company House of Gems; her grandfather was a gemstone auctioneer; and her great‑grandfather was a gem merchant. But more than just being the commodity of their trade, Poddar reveals that jewels, in particular rubies, hold so much more significance: they are the lifeblood of her family.

During the Second World War, Poddar’s paternal grandmother, Ranjan Sheth, who was born in Myanmar (then known as Burma), lost her parents and their family home burnt down. About 12 at the time, she and her nine siblings fled Yangon (then known as Rangoon), the capital city where they lived, for Kolkata (previously Calcutta) in India. They brought nothing with them except for about 40 pieces of Burmese rubies.

The siblings carried these not in their pockets but hidden in the skin between their toes, which had been sliced open with a pocket knife, embedded with the small gems, and then stitched back. This was the insurance their ruby trader father had left with them before he passed away. He had given them instructions to escape out their back door, which led to the waterfront where the ships were. They were to exchange one ruby for their passage to India; smuggled with the cargo to avoid being found by the military.