N. Raghuraman's column: The Magical Power of Trust: A Firefighter and the Story of the Diamond

Trust and continuity are the invisible threads that connect human relationships. When you feel them yourself, they create not just a connection, but an unbreakable relationship. In my career and personal life, I have found that trust is strengthened not by mere words, but by burning in the fire of continuity. Several decades ago, in a high-stakes job interview, I was asked to express myself in two or three words. Without hesitation, I said, "I'm a firefighter. To test my creativity, HR head Arup Gupta said with a crooked smile, "If I were to ask you to add one more word to this line, what would it be?" Apparently he was expecting a simple adjective like 'decorative' or 'efficient', but I surprised him with a practical truth: 'I am a consistent firefighter'. The glow on his face was clearly visible. However, he tried to hide his feelings by saying in a humorous tone that I did not mention any experience of the City Fire Brigade, but the atmosphere of the room could be clearly felt. Consistent- This one word won his trust. Since then, in the last thirty-five years, the same trust has remained between the two of us. A relationship that began with a professional interview turned into a lifelong friendship. This proves that continuity is the foundation upon which the edifice of lasting loyalty rests. Last Friday, standing in the 22,000 sq ft Tanishq store in Andheri, Mumbai, I was reminded of this old story. As I was looking at the decorated showroom, a famous line in Hindi was echoing in my mind: 'Aina was caught taking a bribe again today. There was pain in the heart and the face was caught laughing. In fact, I too was caught up in a lie — almost like when Arup had jokingly avoided the conversation decades ago. With mischievous eyes, Tanishq's chief marketing officer Pelki Tshering asked me, 'Are you tense?' But inside, I was a little hesitant. My concern was not about the price of the object in question, but about the truth of my past. If the result was negative, it would mean that what I had been happy about for decades was actually nothing more than a fake. Pelkey sensed me. She laughed and I smiled as I stole the mouth. That's when I saw Arun Narayan, the CEO of Tanishq, standing far away, enjoying this psychological game. The reason for my tension was the wedding ring, which was gifted by my in-laws many years ago. There was a small diamond in it, the size of a mustard seed. For thirty years I trusted my family jeweller. Today, the same ring was in such a state-of-the-art machine, which is made to tell the difference between natural, lab-made and fake diamonds. I had to wait three minutes. The wait was endless, like watching the buffering of a digital screen during a season finale. In the third minute, the machine decided – 'Natural'. I was relieved. My shadow in the mirror had changed. Pelkey, sensing my victory, came up to me and said loudly, 'Give me a clap'. We did a high-five. Thanking my family jeweller in my mind, I went to Arun and thanked him for giving me a scientific basis for my trust. Perhaps this is the reason why the brand has decided to give this technology to every common man who comes to their outlet and give them a real experience. The trick is that when promises are validated through experience, the relationship becomes unbreakable—whether it's between friends or between a brand and a customer.