Twinkle, twinkle little diamond,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the reach of me,
Like a star in the sky!
A peep into the hoary past
Of our pleasant planet
Does throw some light on the origin
Of this gem of excellent light.
Hard times sure there were
When Nature peeved and sulked,
Threw tantrums like a spoilt child:
Volcanoes woke up with a start
And went on a spree
Of spewing sulphur;
Rivers of liquid fire
Flowed down the vales
With calamitous ire.
Nature did sometimes bristle
Into holocausts of wild, infernal fires
Razing down the prime forests.
Again, like an angry bear
The Earth shook and shivered –
Alas! The quakes ploughed up
A new face of our sphere.
Grand, old trees thus charred to coal
Were pressed hard toward
The Earth’s burning belly.
Trials and tribulations of humans
Make better beings of them, for sure.
The burnt, buried wood alike
Metamorphosed to a gem
Of supreme grit and glean.
The precious product of catastrophes, aha,
Glows with the name ‘DIAMOND’
Hardly does it hold a clue
Or semblance to its source –
A hard-to-believe transformation!
A hypnotising scintillation!
Still, it’s nothing but carbon –
Truly – purified and crystallised;
Distinguished as diamond ‘cos of
Its molecular bonding, that singular arrangement.
And it’s the hardest element on earth,
So hard that none other cuts it than itself –
A handy resistant component of tools,
A technological gain from a cosmetic marvel!
Mined and refined, it parades
As valued prizes of various sizes.
Cut with skill, its facets fascinate
With tints of rarest rainbow hues.
It’s the pride of peers and dynasties,
Cause of fall and rise of empires –
Trailing a blaze of glory and gory battles.
It adorned the crown, the throne and the sceptre
Of rulers down the pages of history-
Coveted, captured and restored
With zeal and valour.
Diamond has a lustre that lures-
Lures to doom or fame.
It’s oft a fatal attraction-
Like a lamp to the fly;
An irresistible charmer,
Another Piper of Hamelin.
Some stones made history too-
Known by name and prestige.
Others, there are, shrouded in mythical glamour,
Like the splendid stone that adorns
The nose of the maiden Goddess
Doing penance at our land’s end.
The brilliance of the gem, it is said,
Flashed far into the sea and beckoned
Ships towards the rocky, perilous shores-
A false beacon, indeed!
The eastern gates of Kumari’s abode, henceforth,
Were, with tact, closed forever.
Full of splendour, a thing of wonder,
A power beyond imagination,
Diamond is forever.
It frills the Muse’s poetic grace
And fills the smuggler’s purse.
Not seldom it’s dreaded
By some as a familial curse,
While others there are
With a firm faith
In its zodiacal favour.
Weighed in carats, marked in counts
And graded by colour, diamond,
The costliest of the ‘Navratnas’,
Certainly speaks the language of love-
The first and best choice to gift:
Be the adored one a mortal or a deity,
As the lofty Lord of the Seven Hills or
The mighty Queen of Madurai or
The winsome saviour Lord of Thiruchendur
Will amply testify.
Diamond, a bitterly sweet extravagance,
A scrupulously-guarded asset,
Pampers the woman’s vanity and
Boosts the man’s status.
The enthraller is, yet, a great unifying factor-
A charm that sways the continents
Sweeping away barriers of caste, colour and creed.
Oh! Diamond! A jewel of absolute beauty!
You brighten the weaver,
You enchant the viewer
As no other gem can hope to do.