KOCHI: She is destiny’s child. With more than a decade-long experience in dealing with diamonds, Vinodhini Vishwanath, proprietor of Kirthi Diamond Jewellery in Palarivattom, says she enjoys designing and dealing with diamond jewellery.
She can look at a woman and visualise what jewellery will suit her best. “That’s the charm of being a woman in this business, the advantage as most of our customers are women,” says Vinodhini.
As her’s is a shop-cumhome- cum-designing unit, she balances home and business with ease. “I am always available for my customers and family. But there is a drawback, we hardly go for vacations.” But she loves her job so much that she does not miss out on it.
Vinodhini got married in 1987 when she was doing MCom and settled down to a quiet life of marital bliss. “I was not much of a dreamer.
Like today’s young women I never thought of pursuing a career either,” says Vinodhini.
Her husband K Vishwanath Aravindhakshan’s family was in the diamond cutting business since 1975 and she came into the picture by chance.
Her father-in-law, Aravindaksha Menon, ventured into the business during one of his trips to Mumbai. “He happened to meet a diamond merchant, Bansali, who asked my father-in-law to join the business,” recalls Vinodhini. Bansali would supply diamonds to Aravindakshan who had to do the cutting and send them back.
“It was much later that we started dealing with diamond jewellery,” she says.
Since her father-inlaw was very particular that his son should pursue a career on his own, Vishwanathan took up a job in Toshiba Anand and assisted in the family business during his free time. In 1987, they established Deepthi Diamonds Ltd at Konathukunnu in Kodungalloor which had 400 employees. There were several difficult tasks to handle and the first and foremost was labour unrest.
“Unfortunately my fatherin- law died an untimely death in ‘88. And my husband had to join the business as executive director,” she recalls.
They were going through a rough patch in those days and to tide over the crisis Vinodhini and her husband went to Mumbai to start diamond export in 1990.
“We were desperate as the loan from the KSIDC was mounting and we had to face a lot of competition too.
To top it all were labour problems. For every Onam workers would start demanding an increase in bonus.
And for the next four months our factory remained closed.
At that time I was not involved in the business,” says Vinodhini. From Mumbai they started buying and selling diamonds directly without middlemen. Her husband’s brother handled the business back home and slowly they closed down the cutting factory and forayed into the diamond jewellery business. “It was a small beginning.
We started taking orders for our friends and family and started working on small earrings and pendants by employing Bengali workers. But soon my husband had to return to Mala in Kerala to manage the business and I stayed back in Mumbai with our two sons who were in Class VIII and Class III,” she says.
All those who knew Vinodhini were quite surprised and even had their doubts about how she would manage business and family on her own, that too in Mumbai.
But Vinodhini says she had to rise to the occasion and wanted to help her husband in all possible ways. At this time she discovered to her own surprise that her marketing skills were quite strong.
But she had to leave Mumbai to join her husband. “By then I had started enjoying my job and wanted to continue with what I was doing.
I just couldn’t think of returning to Mala and doing nothing,” she says. So the very next day after reaching Mala she got involved in the business. “We moved to Thrissur as it was easy to carry on with our business.
Since I am from Thrissur I know a lot of people.” She recalls with gratitude the first big order she got from Dr Suresh Babu for his daughter’s wedding.
Before starting the shop in the city in 2007, Vinodhini and her husband used to travel all over Kerala and even to Nagarcoil and Coimbatore to sell diamonds.
“Those were really hectic days. But we could establish a good client base which ultimately helped us to set up a shop in the city,” says Vinodhini.
They now have a wide and loyal clientile from all parts of Kerala.
She gives all the credit to her husband for the success of their business venture.
“Since he manages all the difficult tasks things are a bit more easy for me as a businesswoman,” says Vinodhini.
manudavis@expressbuzz.com