VISITING Antwerp any time of the year, even in mid-winter, is a great pleasure. The city is full of many an excitingly contradictory feature that adds to its charm. One of the busiest seaports in the world, it does not face the ocean but lies by a river. A small place compared with Brussels, Paris or London and with a population barely surpassing the figure of half a million, it is a major international fashion centre and boasts of being the world’s capital of diamond industry.

The rendezvous with Devendra Harikesh is fixed for afternoon tea at a café that, he assured me on the phone, specialises in English delicacies and a wide variety of Indian and Chinese teas.

I am a little before time and my immediate impression is that Devendra was not wrong about his choice. Dageraadplaats, the square where the café is situated, is in a very calm section of the city. The view from the table that I am given is not of a busy street full of traffic but of a lawn, trees, a church and children playing football, their elongated shadows hurrying in the slanting rays of a winter sun.

At last he shows up, a good looking man in his early thirties. He orders Darjeeling tea and scones and then turns towards me: “So you wanted to talk about diamonds and ‘our’ role in the industry?” “Go ahead”, I say summarily.

“About 85 per cent of the raw diamonds from the entire world end up here. Craftsmen work on them using traditional methods. Experts predict that by the year 2030 world’s diamond resources will be totally exhausted. That bit of news has already made its effect on the market and diamond prices are constantly on the rise.

“For centuries the Jewish community has dominated this industry in Antwerp. They have been the sole diamond importers, craftsmen, negotiators as well as exporters; but not anymore. In 2012 Antwerp exported some 105 million carats of diamonds and we had a good part in this achievement.

“For the past two decades Jain immigrants from India are increasingly taking over this very exclusive trade. How did we succeed? The answer is simple. We stick together, yes, but only in the sense of helping each other.

“For one, we keep out of this victim-playing game most immigrant communities readily indulge in. We maintain a respectful distance from the human rights organisations and our rapport with the Belgians is based strictly on three principles: intelligence, talent and hard work. The locals value this and we are extended the required facilities.

“A well-known dictum in Antwerp goes like this: a diamond is worth anything only if it can pass the four Cs test: cut, colour, clarity and carats. The Jain contribution to this is a fifth C: confidence.

“Some three hundred Jain families are mostly concentrated around the Den Brandt Park area not very far from the centre of the city. The locals sometimes call it Little Bombay, which is amusing as we all do not necessarily come from Bombay.

“Appreciating our contribution to the national economy and the fact that we do our best to keep away from trouble, Belgian authorities have allowed us to have our own temple which was inaugurated in 2010, a beautiful edifice all in white marble.

“In addition to being a praying area, the temple is at the same time a conference hall, a cultural centre and a meeting place for our families and our children.

“Just to give you the example of a Jain enterprise, the Rosy Blue, which we shall visit together after tea, employs 2,800 workers. It is owned and run by a group that has become a major pillar of Antwerp’s diamond industry.

“Although this is a banal fact of our everyday life, the locals are often surprised to learn that our new generation born here can fluently speak the two main languages of this country, Flemish and French, apart from English and Gujrati. Some even speak German, the third Belgian language.

“Yes, another thing that befuddles the Europeans is that many older generation Jains, and that includes my own father, return to India after retirement; they renounce all material possessions and start living like hermits in distant ashrams.

“Diamonds, as you see, are just our way of passing meaningfully the few years that we have been accorded in this transitory, material and meaningless life.”

Devendra takes a bite from his scone, picks up the cup and leans back in his chair, sipping tea.

“In other words”, I say, “one might as well replace ‘girl’ with ‘Jain’ in Marilyn Monroe’s famous song about diamonds.”

He laughs good-heartedly: “I have no objection!”

The writer is a journalist based in Paris.

(ZafMasud@gmail.com)