But it is the Italians who've descended on Pragati Maidan with truckloads of enticing bracelets and odd-shaped white gold bangles who're really tantalising the visiting women, refusing as they are of parting with them at any cost. `We don't sale to the public', declares a poster at one of these stalls rather quaintly. There are around seven of them hosting the Italians, and they are talking if not selling. The owner of Legi International, one of the jewellery manufacturers participating at the show, enlightens you with the information that gold is available in three colours in Italy: copper, brass and white. But only white gold really sells now, he says. Edmund T, who has come all the way from Hong Kong with his gold spectrum analyser in tow, is also not selling. He is rather being much sought after for something else: his machine taken all of three minutes to decide if a gold ornament is real or fake. But he does refuse to disclose what the gizmo cost him, only letting out that it is primarily meant forpawn shops and jewellers.

There are of course enough Indian jewellers at the show, hailing from places as diverse as Jaipur, Calcutta, Mumbai, besides the Capital itself, and they have no less than 110 stalls at their disposal. Some are old timers, like Senco jewellery, running a phenomenal 18 showrooms in Calcutta alone, which is exhibiting for the third time in Delhi. Then there's this stall that doesn't quite boast of crowds stepping on each others toes for a look but is surely host to the most remarkable collection of watches. This belongs to the Swiss watch-maker Ulysse Nardin, and among its collection on exhibit is a 145-year-old watch, which makes it the oldest watch belonging to a brand that still exists.

There's also this 10-year-old watch christened Astrolavium which displays information of precisely when the sun or moon sets/rises in the place where it is being used. The latest model that the company has come out with is called Jungle, and it displays an animated tiger, a bird and a fish that leaps into water.

Amid the all-prevailing glitter of gold and some De Beers diamonds, what really lingers on in the memory are black pearls from Tahiti and from Asialuxe, Hong Kong. Costing anything between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 10 lakh or more, these pearls are also not for sale. But three months later, the company is opening shop at Mumbai and later elsewhere in the country.