Mélange Travel & Lifestyle Magazine April 2016 | Page 136

A Sweet Love Story
lives at

CARIBBEAN
GEMS
in St. Maarten

Was it just coincidence or were
these two just destined to meet?
It all started years, ago, when, at the tender age

love story continues. Were these just coincidences
or had the universe planned to bring these two souls
together?

of 23, Manu Budhrani left his home town in Pune,
India and travelled to St. Maarten. Upon his arrival,
he opened a small store which he called Caribbean
Gems. Shortly after, 15,000 km away from his home
town, Manu met Neelam, a young lady from India
who was visiting relatives in St. Maarten.

Side by side, Manu and Neelam worked hard to build
Caribbean Gems to what it is today, one of the top
rated jewelry stores in St. Maarten with two locations
on Front Street, Philipsburg (the Dutch side of the
island).

They fell in love.... yes, at first sight!

Their stored started with the sale of gold and silver
jewelry, slowly added fine jewelry including emeralds
from Colombia, Tanzanites from Africa and other
semi-precious gems from South America. Today,
they specialize primarily in certified loose diamonds
but still carry a large variety of fine jewelry, watches
and many brands of designer jewelry such as Frieda
Rothman, Zeghani and more. They are also able to
to custom-make jewelry per client’s specifications, in
their in-house workshop.

Incredibly, these two were from the same home town,
Pune, in India. Even more incredible is that they lived
just one street away from each other, but never met in
Pune. It seems they were destined to meet on this tiny
island in the Caribbean. Their story continues... both
Manu and Neelan are vegetarians and, they made the
decision to become vegetarians the very same year,
about 10 years before they met. It gets better - their
parents both share the same wedding anniversary
date, May 4th! There, on the beautiful island of St.
Maarten where their love story began, Manu asked
Neelan to be his wife and they were wed on the island
of Puerto Rico in 1984. Thirty-two years later, their

Throughout the year, Manu and Neelam travels to
jewelry trade shows around the world seeking fine
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