When I was 11, my parents took my sister and I on a 2-week sightseeing trip to India, different then our other trips to India which were filled with visiting relatives in the village. One of the places we went on this trip was the Taj Mahal. My mother put attention to all the holes which were once filled with jewels that were taken by the British, including the Koh-i-Noor—one of the largest cut diamonds in the world. A couple years later my parents took us to visit some relatives in London. The trip included some sightseeing. ———> Swipe to continue reading
We went to the Tower of London, home of the Crown Jewels. My father was a bit restless that day, but my mother was on a mission. She went up to one of the security guards, who was black, and asked him where we could see the Koh-i-Noor diamond. I remember he was super friendly and said, "Ya of coarse, I can show you” and walked us over to the case that displayed the Queens crown which had the Koh-i-Noor. All my mother said was, “You remember that hole at the Taj Mahal, this is what was in it.” This moment shifted my thinking.