"I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short term weapon." --- Tom Stoppard

We don't know about the short term bit but, for ...

"I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short term weapon." --- Tom Stoppard

We don't know about the short term bit but, for certain, Mrs. Anisha Bhaduri's potent weapon of a pen has seen many battles, that mostly she's won, across the pages of Hindustan Times, The Statesman (where she spent a decade, half of which was as News Editor) in Kolkata, and then the China Daily of Hong Kong where she's now Editor, Web.

Her academic credentials are impeccable: she's the first Indian woman to become a Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Fellow, which followed from her graduate work at the Indian Institute of Mass Communications and Masters from the Ateneo de Manila University (Konrad Adenauer Asian Centre for Journalism), Philippines. Add to that her professional triumphs ---- launching and leading the live digital edition of The Statesman, India's oldest English-language daily; first prize in a national literary contest for women writers held by the British Council in India; and the Pradyot Bhadra Young Journalist Award for Excellence ---- and you'll know smiling, quiet, soft-spoken Anisha as a force to reckon with in the muscular world of journalism, more so as we're in the era of post-truth politics and piceous populism. In articles of breathtaking range, she admonishes the young for being too preoccupied with doing and urges them towards a "culture of responsible contemplation", and takes down the so-called tiger mums for obsessing about elite schools for their toddlers, all the while tending to her eleven-year-old son and managing home for him as well as her husband.

When she commissioned us to design her a Kanbala, after having gotten to know us on Facebook, we did so in several variations knowing her keen creative eye. She chose, among those, this:

A kalka-infused delight with two curly brackets swinging freely from a paisley-ended hanger that has at its centre a large pearl drop (which you'll also see at the bottom); as also, separately, ball and ball-karai borders; a strung-pearl edging between ball clusters in the lower bracket; and finally, the aam-kalka pasha, the detailing of which sets the tone of the ornament. The wire-tied pearl beads sit snugly in their collets and help in balancing the gold and pearls so that at no time can the yellow-metal overpower the mukto. The clean lines, the repetitive richness of the kalkas, an unusual shape, splendidly calibrated solids and voids . . . they all add up to form the character of the kanbala: an unfussy marvel of a earring whose brevity of elements and effectiveness of shape and form sort of reflect the "beauty of a (her) simple life'' as the heroine, Kanika, of 'Other People's Lives' ---- the first story in 'She Writes', a compendium of twelve short stories (picked from four hundred submissions!!), penned by Anisha ---- realizes towards the end of the narrative.

And so it is, a simple but powerful earring for a powerful but simple lady whose many accolades and achievements she will never let you know even if you know her well, such is her self-effacement, so coruscating her modesty. Yet she goes about her daily business of changing the world with unshakeable confidence and energy, and while doing so makes it evident that truth and beauty must be fought for ceaselessly by each of us in our own way. She chooses to do it with her self-belief, and her sunrise smile, with all the goodness of her heart and with every honest word she can unleash to make herself heard. We do it with gold. When someone like Anisha, a beautiful warrior for a better world and a champion of social and civic truth, selects us for her bespoke guinea-gold jewels, we feel honoured. We thank her deeply and sincerely, and in keeping with tradition, name the Kanbala after her.