It was the last thing I expected to notice at recently held Chinar Book Fest. The halls were alive with the scent of fresh pages, the sound of turning leaves, and the warm hum of ideas being exchanged. Authors signed books, poets recited lines, and artistsdisplayed their works. Yet my attention was caught not by the bold colors on canvases or the spines of rare books, but by the quiet glint of silver on a young man’s hand.

It was a ring—plain, unpolished, and almost shy in its presence. However, there was something about it that seemed to carry more than its share of meaning.

When I asked, Dipender smiled the way one does when they are about to open a box of memories.

The ring, he told me, had once been a one-rupee coin. But not just any coin. On the day he was born in 1998, his grandfather had placed that very coin into his mother’s palm—a gesture of blessing for the life that had just begun. A small, shining promise of protection and prosperity.

For years, the coin lived quietly in his family’s keeping, tucked away in a safe place. It was not spent, never exchanged, never allowed to slip into the anonymous flow of currency. It was his, long before he understood its meaning.

As he grew, Dipender’s life unfolded into the world of art and culture. He completed his Master’s degree in Art History and Art Appreciation from Jamia Millia Islamia, immersed himself in research, and began shaping his own identity as an emerging art practitioner, researcher, and educationist. 

Today, he serves as Project Associate in the Sutradhara division (Publication Unit) at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. He has even taught as an Assistant Professor at the College of Art, New Delhi. His work spans curatorial practice, gallery relations, public engagement, and writing—exploring the intersections of visual culture, folk traditions, and art history.

However, somewhere along this journey, the coin began to call to him again.

He decided it deserved a life outside the shadows of a drawer. He had it forged into a ring—reshaping not just metal, but memory. Now, it circles his finger as he writes, teaches, and curates. It is with him in lecture halls, at art fairs, in moments of triumph, and in quiet days of reflection.

The ring is a perfect metaphor for his artistic practice: rooted in heritage, shaped through artisanship, and worn into the present without losing its connection to the past. Its value lies not in what it could buy, but in what it represents—a grandfather isblessing, a mother’s love, and the unbroken thread of family.

As we spoke, I realized the ring was not just jewelry. It was a story—a story of beginnings, of continuity, of keeping love close enough to touch.

In a world that moves too quickly to hold onto the old, Dipendercarries his past with him. Not locked away in memory, but alive in silver, in a perfect circle—without beginning, without end.