There are very few things we wear that can hold as many memories as jewellery does. Such as when a necklace can remind you of your wedding. A pair of jhumkas can take you back to a festival you celebrated with your family. A bangle may have been something your mother wore before it found its way into your jewellery box. That is what makes Indian jewellery so special. It has never really been just about how something looks.

For generations, jewellery has been part of how we celebrate, how we dress and in many ways how we express who we are. From Kundan necklaces and temple jewellery to jhumkas, chandbalis, bangles and colourful stone-set pieces, Indian jewellery has always had a very distinctive characteristic to itself from piece to piece. Even the motifs we see so often are those of peacocks, flowers, mangoes, lord figures and intricate traditional patterns which have their own history and meaning and yet, what is interesting is that these designs don't seem to belong only to the past. A traditional Kundan necklace can look completely different when paired with a contemporary saree. A pair of jhumkas can be worn with a simple kurta and elevate it seamlessly and just as easily as they can be part of a bridal look. Temple-inspired jewellery can be styled traditionally or given a much more modern interpretation. Hence that ability to change and attire without losing its identity is perhaps what makes Indian jewellery so enduring.

The way we wear jewellery has changed, but our relationship with it hasn't really changed that much. For instance where we happen to still choose pieces for important occasions, still look for something that feels special and we still hold on to certain pieces because they remind us of someone or somewhere.

At Prasad Novelties, this is what makes jewellery exciting for us. There is always a story behind why someone is looking for a particular piece, whether it is for a wedding, a festival, a celebration or simply because they have found something they love and adore because at the end of it all jewellery doesn't become memorable just because it is beautiful. It becomes memorable because it becomes part of your story.

If you've spent any amount of time around Avenue Road, you know that it has its own personality. It is one street that almost rarely ever dulls down as it is always busy, vibrant and constantly moving at a pace of its own. With shops everywhere, people shopping for weddings, festivals or absolutely any occasion one could possibly think of. With families walking from one store to another and there is always something that catches your attention along the way.

For jewellery shoppers in Bangalore, Avenue Road and Chickpet have long been destinations in their own right and for us at Prasad Novelties, there is something special about being part of that. As jewellery shopping here doesn't always follow a plan. You may walk in looking for a necklace and leave thinking about a pair of earrings you hadn't considered. You may have a particular design in mind and then find something completely different that feels more like you or even resonates with you to the most part of it.

That is the charm of shopping in a place like Avenue Road. It is a place full of variety, but there is also almost always discovery and when you are shopping for jewellery, discovery matters most to any of us. It isn't always about finding the most expensive piece or following whatever happens to be trending. Sometimes it is about finding something that works with a particular saree, something that feels right for a wedding, or simply something you know you will or would want to wear while being able to come back to it again and again.

Avenue Road with time has also changed with the people who shop there. Traditional jewellery continues to have its place as that will always remain unshaken, but the way people wear it today is different. Who should have thought that a Kundan necklace might be paired with a contemporary outfit, a traditional jhumka might become an everyday favourite and that bridal jewellery can be mixed and matched rather than worn as one complete set. The designs evolve, the styling changes, but the love for jewellery remains undeniably unshaken with seasons that have passed and even those to come.

That is what makes Avenue Road interesting to us, as it isn't just a place where jewellery is bought. It is a place where people come looking for something and more often than not leave having found something they didn't know they were looking for at all.

When we hear the word heirloom, most of us immediately think of an expensive piece of jewellery that has been passed down through generations. But if you are to sit and really give it a thought we all would agree that an heirloom has far more superior meaning to itself than just being a generational passed down. We would realise that every piece we inherit has an extremely valuable and emotional story attached to it now and with times to come.

A necklace doesn't become special simply because it is valuable. It is often made special with the thought behind the moment it was bought, by the person who adorned it and mostly all the stories that gathered around it with time. That is what makes the idea of the modern heirloom so interesting. Today, jewellery collections are much more personal. People are not necessarily buying pieces only because they are considered traditional or valuable. They are choosing pieces based on what they like, what they wear and what they can see themselves returning to years later after the purchase has been made because it is the meaning that each piece of jewellery carries with itself from time to time.

A classic Kundan necklace is a good example — its design may have roots in traditional Indian jewellery, but it can be styled in so many different ways today. The same goes for a pair of jhumkas, a temple-inspired necklace or even a beautifully detailed bangle. Trends may come and go while attempting to change around them, but these designs continue to find their way back into our wardrobes and then there are the pieces that have nothing to do with tradition but still become important to us and remain long standing in our list of preference.

Maybe it was the first piece you bought yourself, maybe it was something you chose for an important celebration, maybe someone special helped you pick it. Those are the memories that give jewellery a value that cannot really be measured. This is precisely why we do not think that an heirloom has to be something you inherit, rather it can be something you choose today and eventually pass on tomorrow with deep meaning attached to it.

Choose pieces that feel like you, pieces that are not going to feel irrelevant once a trend disappears, pieces that you can imagine wearing for more than just one occasion because sometimes the most meaningful heirlooms aren't the ones we receive. Instead they are the ones we begin with.