Romancing The Stone

He sold recycled jewellery on the streets of Calcutta before he became a household name. Now, with his high-end jewellery collection, SABYASACHI MUKHERJEE wants to mystify you with his jewels while de-mystifying the Indian woman who wears them.

- Bandana Tewari

Armed with recycled baubles—a potpourri of semi-precious stones, bones, horns and other accoutrements of nature— Sabyasachi Mukherjee would cruise the bustling streets of erstwhile Calcutta—Park Street and Chowringhee Lane—selling his pieces in plastic tiffin boxes. This was way before he became every Indian bride’s most coveted bridal designer.

“Calcutta has a way of creeping under your skin and injecting aesthetic into your soul,” says Mukherjee. This is the city that he reminisces about the most because it thrills with the spirit of bygone days—wafting smells of warm mustard oil and jasmine, as buxom women traipse between decorating their hair with flowers and cooking ilish macher jhol (Bengali fish curry)—like no other. And where old customs are concerned, whether pre or post-British Raj, says Mukherjee, the romance of buying jewellery has been unparalleled. It was, after all, the era of slow. Shopping entailed a leisurely process of deep admiration for design and deeper contemplation over process, intermingled with many coquettish giggles and yearning sighs— all this, before you were led down the meandering road of buying and selling. “This is how precious jewellery was bought by my mother and grandmother—and this is what I want to resurrect,” says Mukherjee.