Category Archives: Interviews: Lifestyle

Riding Up A Storm: Polo Players of Manipur

23 Saturday Mar 2019

Posted by in Features & Trends, Interviews: Lifestyle, Publication: Elle, Social Chronicles, Sustainability

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Published: Elle Magazine, March 2019
Photographs: Ashish Shah

Manipur’s growing polo sisterhood has put the birthplace of the sport back on the global map—and may well revive the endangered local pony too….

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On a hill around Heingang village, on the outskirts of Imphal, there is a pony shrine to Lord Marjing, the god of polo, where the Meitei (the majority ethnic group of Manipur) come to worship, and where the local polo players go to light candles before a game. There is mystical energy at the shrine as prayers are offered to Sanamahi, the patron god of every Meitei household, who created the Samadon Ayangba—a fast and fierce pony with wings.

The legendary Manipuri Pony is symbolic of a culture that has struggled in many ways to ride forward. L Somi Roy, the grandson of Manipur’s former monarch Maharaja Churachandra, left Manipur for USA in the ’80s and on his return two decades later, found the pony listlessly ambling the streets of Imphal feeding on plastic. Despite its mythological and historical importance, the semi-feral animal’s grazing areas were lost due to negligent urbanisation. Today, the Manipuri Pony is an endangered species with an estimated population of fewer than 500.

Roy, who is a conservationist and a custodian of culture, realised that the only way to keep the pony alive would be to help build up Sagol Kangjei (Manipuri polo) by bringing international attention to it. Manipur is considered the birthplace of modern polo—the British later exported the sport to the rest of the world. Mapal Kangjeibung polo ground, situated in the heart of Imphal and surrounded by urban buildings, is one of the oldest extant grounds in the world. It dates to the early 17th century, with references that go back to the first century AD during the reign of King Kangba.

As polo has been male-dominated in Manipur, female players were seriously lagging in the sport due to lack of opportunity and direction. That changed with Roy’s initiatives. Drawing upon his contacts at the United States Polo Association (USPA) in 2013, Roy, along with his US partner Ed Armstrong, began inviting women’s polo teams from abroad to hold a local tournament in Imphal.

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And thus began the Manipur Statehood Day Women’s Polo Tournament, India’s only international women’s polo tournament, in 2016, in partnership with Roy’s Polo Yatra (an enterprise for women’s polo in India), the USPA, and Manipur Tourism, with only one visiting team: USA. The annual tournament has grown exponentially since then. The recently-concluded season in January this year had four foreign teams—USA, Canada, Kenya and Argentina—along with the Indian Polo Association (IPA) team with the support of Manipur Tourism, Incredible India, and the Bombay Stock Exchange. It was produced by Polo Yatra and organised by the All Manipur Polo Association. In testimony to its growing global standing, Argentina put together a tournament called the Manipur Cup in 2018, where the winners of the 13 participating teams came to play in Manipur.

Daughters Of The Polo God (2018), an award-winning documentary film on the female polo players of Manipur, which had its India premiere on the opening night of the tournament, perfectly captures the spirit on the ground. Roopa Barua, the film’s director, says, “I had only heard stories of civil unrest, terrorists and army atrocities in Manipur. But when I went to Imphal for the tournament in 2016, I saw that women’s polo was a growing story—the symbiotic relationship between women’s polo and the endangered Manipuri Pony was a very unique concept.”

Roy points out, “Women have been at the forefront of change in Manipur—they are entirely fearless.” Three-fourths of the country’s female polo players come from the state. It has 26 polo clubs, many of which have women players (two of these clubs are even owned by women), with over 30 women players and five women’s teams in Imphal alone. Fifty-four-year-old Thoudam Thoinu Devi exemplifies the term “boss lady”: she owns the Chingkhei Humba Polo Club, which now has over 80 horses that belong to its members. Her niece, 23-year-old Thoudam Tanna, who was named Best Manipuri Player in this tournament, is as formidable on the field as her aunt is off it. “She was nobody in that world—less than 15 years old, she came in her old clothes—and yet she won first prize at the equestrian games,” says a proud Thoinu about her niece in Daughters….

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The local polo players hail from humble backgrounds—in Manipur, polo isn’t linked to economic status and the players don’t necessarily own their horses. Khundongbam Habe, at 35, the oldest local player this season, sells vegetables to pay the bills. “Maintaining ponies is very difficult and expensive. The polo association contributes to their care, but there are hurdles, like the lack of grazing grounds and the decreasing number of ponies,” she says. An untrained pony could cost INR 50,000, while trained animals could range from anywhere between one lakh and three lakh rupees. And then there is the burden of gender inequality—the players describe how the men’s teams have many more facilities and are also sent for equestrian jumping and national games, while the women’s teams are not.

On January 17, at the opening ceremony of the polo tournament, 18 local and international artistes performed with a range of instruments including the Manipuri pena and the guitar in sweet synergy. It is symbolic of the camaraderie displayed by the local and international teams on and off the ground. Anna Winslow Palacios, from Team USA, who was in Manipur for the second time, was impressed with the improvement in the play of the local girls—they drew with Kenya and lost to Argentina by just two goals. At the insistence of Ricardo Mihanovich of the Federation Of International Polo and Ed Armstrong of Team USA, they received the first Most Improved Team award from Polo Yatra. Palacios says, “They are all so passionate and willing to learn—like sponges, absorbing all that we had to offer. On the field, they were right there with the top players.”

The Manipuri women players are self-trained—they don’t abide strictly by fixed international or Indian rules of polo. And the Manipuri Pony, unlike a thoroughbred, is no longer ideal for modern polo—it is small, even if it is swift and lithe. Delhi-based Monica Saxena, the captain of the IPA, says, “The horse is 80 per cent of the game. The challenge is that the Manipuri girls only learn and play on the local horses, but I see great potential in them. With proper coaching, they can beat any international team.”

Some of the foreign players take time off before the matches to teach the Manipuri players, often with the help of translators, as not all the local players speak English. And as recently as November 2018, The Tata Trust company, at Roy’s initiative, formed a centre in Imphal where 20 local players were inducted to undergo training. Mriganka Singh, from team IPA, says, “I have lived and played in Delhi, where there are very few women polo players and no tournaments like this that allow you to improve your game. Polo in Delhi is very competitive; my polo experience in Manipur with players of all ages, from 14- to 50-years-old—was unique and a reminder of the reason for my passion for the sport.”

Perhaps coming full circle the foot of the shrine to Lord Marjing is a 200-acre piece of land sanctioned for a pony preserve. “While saving the pony is an ongoing struggle, we have a policy in place, and it is declared an endangered breed,” says Roy. During the tournament, there was a pony preservation conference held at Manipur University, where the participation of players from the international teams further underscored the global concern for this breed’s conservation.

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Meanwhile, fresh out of the tournament where their team gave their more-experienced opponents a run for their money, Tanna and 20-year-old Victoria Oinam and Neelu RK are on a high that their eventual loss hasn’t dampened. Says Tanna’s sister, Thoudam Sanajaobi, also a state polo player, as she sits out and cheers herself hoarse while her sister plays this season, “I dream of going to other places to play polo.” They turn to look at the foreign players, with wistfulness and the uncynical hope of youth, awaiting a time when they may celebrate the Manipuri Pony and its sporting tradition by riding beyond borders.

Priya Jhaveri: A Sense of Self Over A Sense of Style

28 Saturday Oct 2017

Posted by in Fashion & Style, Interviews: Lifestyle, Publication: Mint Lounge

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Published in Mint Lounge, October 28 Edition
Photographs by Abhijit Bhatlekar

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The passion for art began at home. Gallerist Priya Jhaveri’s parents were “obsessive collectors” of beautiful things, including modern art and antiquities, textiles, jewellery and ornaments. “They travelled widely, always including us in their visits to artist studios and galleries, and encouraged a study of the humanities,” says Jhaveri.

Since 2010, an apartment on Walkeshwar Road in South Mumbai, designed by Bijoy Jain, has been converted into Jhaveri Contemporary, a gallery showing artists across generations. Priya’s older sister, the London-based Amrita Jhaveri, manages the relationships with the estates they represent as a gallery. In Mumbai, Priya works closely with the gallery’s international artists, producing, promoting, managing exhibitions and negotiating sales, while overseeing daily operations.

The 41-year-old modern history and Spanish major from Oberlin College, US, has worked with an environmental law firm in San Francisco, collaborated with writer and filmmaker Bishakha Datta’s non-profit organization Point of View (POV) in India, co-authored a book,Unzipped: Women And Men In Prostitution Speak Out and worked as editor and project manager on books on Indian art and architecture at India Book House, before joining the art consultancy set up by her sister that evolved into the gallery.

The gallery showcases a wide range of artists, both veteran and avant-garde—currently on show is experimental film-maker Shambhavi Kaul’s work—and it forms a reference for Jhaveri’s individualistic sensibility and aesthetic values.

Priya gravitates towards understated elegance with a touch of quirk. She is dressed in Western attire for the most part. “I adore saris but I can’t tie my own sari!” she says. She has a practical approach to dressing: You are likely to find her in flats and sporting a white Swatch Skin watch. She avoids “high-maintenance clothes” for her work life, and opts for functional ready-to-wear for travel abroad, accounting for the local climate and long days at fairs. But there is always an accessory, like the chunky ivory wedding chudis she wears to add a touch of colour, or jewellery from sister Nandita Jhaveri’s eponymous line.

Screen Shot 2017-10-31 at 4.05.13 PMShoes by You Khanga. 

You might struggle to recognize the brands she wears, for she shops at local boutiques abroad for anything that catches her eye, like the You Khanga closed-toe flats (an Italian brand that works with African prints). A classic blue Acne Studios shirt is a staple and a Stella Jean dress a fun favourite, with basics from Uniqlo and Zara. In India, she tends to pick up items from Bodice, Amba, Vraj:bhoomi (for brogues) and close friend Maithili Ahluwalia’s Bungalow 8. It’s all so subtle, you wouldn’t even realize she is wearing a Chloé dress. You believe her when she quips about her personal style, “I’ve not given it much thought, so perhaps it’s effortless.”

Lounge caught up with her for an interview. Edited excerpts:

How would you describe your personal style?

I do know that style eclipses the best of wardrobes, presupposing a certain authenticity: Find comfort in your own skin, and the rest will follow. I tend to veer towards a more classic look. I’m not hugely adventurous and, depending on my mood, I can pick things that are elegant, androgynous, lazy even: I’d love to leave home in a pretty kaftan and chappals with a silver necklace thrown on.

Are you attracted to a specific palette or cuts?
I gravitate towards classic cuts set apart by irregular detailing. I enjoy striking colours—orange, turquoise, sky blue, emerald—and, on occasion, patterns and prints that are graphic, playful or more delicate. I appreciate clothing made using natural dyes and fabrics and the use of traditional weaves reinvented in contemporary design.

Do you believe that a sense of style is important?
Not as much as a sense of self. But if we’re thinking of style more broadly, in terms of attitude and comportment, then yes it is.

Is there any weight to the saying: style/dressing is an art form?
It can be, absolutely, just like the best of television can, or a piece of writing, music, architecture or dance.

Describe your preferred outfits for work, evening and a casual setting.
Lots of dresses with silver jewellery (also jewellery made with materials like coral, stone, glass) and sandals for work. If I’m working at an art fair, I add skirts and jumpsuits, with heels on the first three days and flat shoes on the last two when comfort trumps vanity. In a casual setting, I adore roomy trousers in Khadi by Runaway Bicycle.

Screen Shot 2017-10-31 at 4.07.30 PMVintage agate and diamond earrings designed by her father Dinesh Jhaveri in the 1970s.

Describe your three best style acquisitions.

A Patola sari for its flawless double-Ikat weave. Brilliantly handcrafted, it resembles a Nintendo game with its graphic pattern sporting animals and hybrid creatures. Earrings designed by my father, Dinesh Jhaveri, in the 1970s, for their inventive use of materials like wood and crystal alongside diamonds and gold. And a classic Boucheron watch with interchangeable leather straps in multiple colours for its timeless design.

When it comes to art and fashion, do you believe in acquiring timeless pieces or the flavour of the moment?
The challenge is knowing whether the “flavour of the moment” will be timeless or, equally, whether you need it to be timeless. In collecting art, my judgement sits somewhere between instinct and knowledge. It is important to make informed decisions. Supporting an artist can often be reward enough, as can an impulsive bout of retail therapy.

How important is sensibility and can you define it? Can it be acquired or is it inherent?
Sadly, I can’t define it. Its importance, however, is hard to over-exaggerate. Given that sensibility covers everything that not only makes sense but also makes beauty out of the daily rough and tumble of our lives. In a different mode: I don’t think sensibility is a value that is central to art or style anymore. Most artists today respond to literary or political values. Prelapsarian aesthetic pleasures have given way to more theoretical approaches.

When it comes to style, who or what inspires you?
Artist Amrita Sher-Gil, irreverence, The Sopranos, the novels of Philip Roth, the people I love and the laughter of old friends.

Rajesh Pratap Singh: ‘Brocade Hoods and Pin-tucked Tuxedos’

25 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by in Fashion & Style, Interviews (All), Interviews: Lifestyle, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Published in Verve Magazine, September 2017 (Bridal Issue)
Photographs by Rishabh Malik

Designer, Rajesh Pratap Singh, on undertaking ‘super couture projects’ for unconventional brides. 

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He won’t design a wedding outfit. But, if you are lucky, he will create something, as a ‘super couture project’, for you, if approached with the right sensibility. All he asks is that you be: “intelligent, experimental, unconventional, and not bound by tradition”.

Seminal androgynous fashion has come out of Rajesh Pratap Singh’s atelier. Based in New Delhi, he hails from Rajasthan, and considers the poshakh the perfect bridal garment. Post NIFT Delhi, he worked in fashion in India and Italy before introducing his own line of men’s and women’s clothing in 1997. Pratap Singh, who has showcased his collections at Paris Fashion Week, draws from his roots to craft artisanal garments that stand out for their impeccably clean lines, careful detailing and subtle international silhouettes.

Pratap Singh, who is Woolmark’s first wool ambassador of India (2013), has his creations (made with Bhutanese fabrics) permanently housed in Bhutan’s Royal Textile Museum, while his ajrak prints on linen as well as handloom weaves in ikat are housed in the permanent textile and apparel archives of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. However, his textile repertoire extends beyond experimenting with ikat weaves, handloom indigos, Chanderis and Benarasi weaves. His fondness for the sari, which he describes as “a directory of Indian textiles”, is evident by the animation in his voice and generosity of adjectives used while on the topic. “It is the purest and most perfect Indian garment: versatile, beautiful and sexy.” He has developed a range of saris; his looms, whenever free, go into creative production to make these.

His voice is crisp, but his demeanour is non-confrontational. He doesn’t want to disrupt, he just wants to be true to his point of view. Perhaps that is what is missing from the Indian bridal milieu — sophisticated, cultivated points of view that offer a bouquet of options to the bride-to-be. Not one that remains limited to what Pratap Singh, at the risk of being politically incorrect, suggests is “a crazy obsession with an idea of ‘Indian royalty’ which manifests itself in a whole different avatar when it comes to wedding attire”.

The designer, who — literally, as we speak — is setting up one of his looms to weave a garment for a close friend’s daughter, has, in the past, designed a classic Benarasi lehnga woven with engineered motifs for his colleague Devika Multani and created a veiled brocade jacket with dhoti pants for Border and Fall’s Malika Verma Kashyap, for their wedding days. Pratap Singh holds strong to the fact that “people should be able to wear whatever they want to, on supposedly one of the most important days in their life. It should be an extension of their personality and whatever they are comfortable with. There must be no expectations, nor should their wardrobe selection be dictated by norms”. Verma Kashyap speaks about her choice of designer for her wedding outfit: “Reaching out to Rajesh was a simple decision, as was the process of creating it with him. I’ve always loved his clothing and the spirit in which he approaches design: it’s thoughtful and cuts through the noise.”

In essence, it boils down to sensibility. And realising that if you like his work, he’ll work with you to create something exclusive. A garment that would be simply the combination of his technique and your personality. Both irrefutably unique.

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Excerpts from a conversation with the designer….

Tell us about your problem with Indian women dressed like ‘royalty’ on their wedding day.
There is a confused ‘royal hangover’. What a lot of designers think royalty ought to be, or ‘nouveau royalty’. We already have a traditional wedding outfit (typical to different parts of the country). I believe you shouldn’t touch a garment that is perfect, unless you have something serious to say. I see bad reproductions of some things that existed or that which are thought to have existed: such as a cancan-gown-inspired lehnga. It is neither here nor there.

Do you believe you could create a relevant voice in nontraditional bridal wear?
The categories we work with, so far, have not included bridal wear. Jackets were what we started off with and that is where we progressed. Our job is to solve problems, and we didn’t look at the bridal market as having a problem. There are enough people in this sphere, with some doing a really decent job of it.

What does style mean?
Style is distinctive, definitive and comes from being within your comfort zone, in an effortlessly natural and honest way.

Do you believe that bridal wear, by nature, allows women to be comfortable?
Each to her own. While I don’t want to judge, I can’t understand women wearing something so heavy, where the internal construction has suspenders to carry the weight of the embroidery on the lehnga. I would not make something like that! Weddings in India are a long affair, so wear what you feel comfortable in. If you want to make a statement, make sure it’s one you believe in — the designer is the last person who should be the decision maker.

Today in India, can there be an androgynous bride….or an androgynous groom?
Today in India, you should be whoever you want to be and wear whatever you want to wear. That is the true essence and spirit of freedom. If a girl wants to wear a tuxedo for her wedding, go ahead. I’ll make it for you!

How would you design a lehnga?
With engineered motifs, and definitely woven. I can’t say that the alternative is a pin-tuck lehnga, which people ask for. The geometry of the pin-tuck lehnga won’t give the right finish to the garment; it’s not meant for that.

Basically, it is the personality of the individual that pushes a garment, rather than me trying to say, ‘I’ve made a lehnga, I’ve put 10,000 crystals on it, it costs you a bomb and you have to wear it.’ It may be great for business, but I am not in that business.

What would it take for a bride to convince you to make an outfit for her?
She just needs to ask. And if she’s interesting and intelligent, why not? If I know the person, I would do it out of love. If a random person throws money at me, I won’t do it.

There has to be a certain vibe and understanding. It’s difficult for me to do a faceless, nameless design of this nature. For that, I have tons of friends doing wonderful work and I’m happy to direct you there!

Payal Khandwala: Out of the Closet

08 Saturday Jul 2017

Posted by in Fashion & Style, Interviews (All), Interviews: Lifestyle, Publication: Mint Lounge

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Published in Mint Lounge July 8, 2017
(Text edited from original). Photograph by Abhijit Bhatlekar

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Her brand-new cat interjects his way playfully into many parts of our conversation, and artist-turned-designer Payal Khandwala deals with the situation with the same composure that she would any other area of her life. Khandwala draws from her vivacious artist’s palette for the eponymous clothing line she first showcased in March 2012, 10 years after she moved back from New York to Mumbai.

Khandwala went to New York to study fine arts at the Parsons School of Design in 1995 and then worked with menswear designer Sandy Dalal in the US.

Unable to find clothes that she liked, and sensing the potential market for a prêt line, she decided to move from canvas to fabric. The line has taken on a life of its own: She started by retailing at Good Earth and now has two stores in Mumbai, and is stocked in multiple stores in four metros.

Khandwala, 43, has repeatedly made it to best-dressed lists for her individual sense of style, which is bold-hued, sleek and non-fussy. Her eyes are always made up dramatically, her petite frame is enveloped in colourful drapes, trousers and antique silver accessories. But what she wears best is her grounded attitude to life and style. After all, she is the one who popularized lehngas with pockets for women.

payal1-k6vG--621x414@LiveMintColour-coordinated brocade saris.

The saris in her wardrobe are grouped and hung in order of colour shades and sometimes, she says, she will just “undo it to avoid becoming a slave to that kind of discipline”. Edited excerpts from an interview:

Should we be surprised that your living spaces are minimalist and muted?
I am very practical; I don’t like fuss and clutter. Not only is it the way I design, it’s also the way I live. While I like accents of colour, I want the environment to be neutral. Besides, I can’t wear and be around colour simultaneously!

How different is your look now from your New York avatar?
As a student I didn’t have any money, but New York is full of flea markets and vintage stores. I was more bohemian: pairing jeans with a top, shawl or kaftan. I became more minimalistic when I began making clothes for myself, and with age, perhaps. I don’t want too much of either sophistication or free-spiritedness.

cat-k6vG--621x414@LiveMintDistressed jeans from Hong Kong.

You’ve struggled to find lowers that worked for you, how did you figure them out?
I love jeans because they stand the test of time (she’s “obsessed” with a pale pair from a mall in Hong Kong that is loose-fitting, distressed and bootleg). I always found everything else more formal, while high-street options are largely trend-based. So now if I want to wear a particular kind of pant (she counts the palazzo as a staple), I just make it.

Anything from “back then” that makes you cringe?
You won’t see me wearing colourful patent leather wedges or fluorescent colours. I disliked the 1980s and 1990s. It was the worst time for fashion. I did it then and it was a disaster. I have learnt my lesson.

Didn’t you have a love affair with saris?
I took two Abraham & Thakore cotton saris with me to New York, but it became a lot easier when I moved back to Mumbai, because of the weather. Being a part of the art circle, or maybe as a reaction to having been away so long, I began wearing saris more frequently, pairing them with tank tops or jackets that I procured from Vietnam, Cambodia or Istanbul. I easily have more than 80 saris (none of which are from my mother), including 50- to 70-year-old vintage brocade saris, and lehngas woven with pure gold thread, and an early Sabyasachi.

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Silver necklace from Istanbul.

Tell us about your eclectic jewellery collection.
I have a lot of silver jewellery: I wore it with saris for my wedding. I’ve not bought anything in ages, because there is very little of the genuine kind in circulation—they just make pieces that look antique. I’ve picked up stuff from Rajasthan (Jaipur and Udaipur), Istanbul and, earlier, from Amrapali. I am also fond of necklaces that are like thin discs made out of coconut or vinyl put together and tribal, Maasai-style pieces. I’m currently in love with flower-shaped leather rings that I picked out in multiple shades from a little Spanish store, Tierra (now shut down), in New York.

shoes-k6vG--621x414@LiveMintA pair of indigo brogues from Miz Mooz, New York

Do you believe in a “look”?
If you have a distinct sense of style, it will automatically come with a “look”. Any decision you make—if it comes from a place that is not external or trend-driven—is based on your personality. For instance, I’m an informal person. I will go to a restaurant and cross my legs and sit; so you will very rarely see me wearing anything that is short and tight.

Which is more important, fashion or style?
Style, of course! And that makes you question the male gaze. In much the way that Coco Chanel was trying to do by questioning the need for women to wear corsets—because there were men designing for women, with their idea of what a girl should look like. I feel now there is finally some conversation about this.

purple-k6vg-414x621livemint.jpgReversible handwoven jacket from Payal Khandwala.

What do you believe is key to making, wearing and choosing clothes?
It is simply a matter of taste that will connect all three. And while I know colour is what everyone responds to, the bedrock of a good outfit (for anybody of any size and shape) is proportion. It’s like assuming that a long skinny rectangle can be equal to a square. As you “cover up” with clothes, you are cheating: Perhaps three people in the world have a body that looks perfectly proportionate. The rest of us are stuck with bits and bobs and the lines we’ve earned and stretch marks we have fought for.

Payal’s colour wheel
Khandwala gives us her markers for special occasions

Brunch: Think beyond white. It works, but it’s predictable. I recommend citrine or coral.

Cocktail: Don’t feel compelled to pick black, go with a deeper bold colour. I’m partial to jewel colours, so sapphire blue, emerald green, perhaps with a hint of metallic.

Romantic date: Pick a colour that is an extension of your personality. This is probably the best time to be at your most comfortable. If you’re bold, I would recommend crimson; free spirits can try chartreuse; if you lean towards shyness, then powder blue, silver, or blush rose.

When in doubt: Neutrals like charcoal, black, navy, indigo and white work in most situations, so when unsure, turn to one of these shades. Whichever colour you pick, the key is to wear it with confidence.

Past Forward: Abha Narain Lambah

12 Friday May 2017

Posted by in Interviews (All), Interviews: Lifestyle, Interviews: The Arts, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Published in Verve Magazine, Design edition, May 2017
Photograph (Abha Narain Lambah) by Shubham Lodha

You’ve looked wistfully, over the years, at India’s only surviving opera house, wishing for the beautiful baroque structure with a blend of local and international architectural styles to be restored to its former glory. Abha Narain Lambah popped out a wand and breathed new life into it, like she has done with numerous buildings in the country. Magic can’t reckon with bureaucracy, but this soft-spoken lady with nerves of steel has managed to pull off many a coup.

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Armed with a master’s degree in architectural conservation from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, she’s clocked in over two decades of experience in the field. Her diligence in research, respectfulness of history, and faithfulness to detail in restoration has led to her being awarded the Sanskriti Award, Eisenhower Fellowship, and the Attingham Trust and Charles Wallace fellowship and being nominated by ArcVision among the top 20 women architects globally in 2016.

Perhaps the 46-year old’s nomadic journey has led to a practical, inclusive attitude to her work. “I am a bit of a gypsy because I don’t think I’ve stayed in any city for more than five years — my father was in a transferable government job. I grew up in many towns, including Kolkata and Delhi. The longest I have been anywhere — now 22 years — is Mumbai, which I consider home. People say the city is crowded and congested, messy and chaotic; but I think there’s a very intrinsic system that works here and at the core of it is a very warm magical world. Every place in the country has a different sensibility, vibe and history. My grandfather in Srinagar lived in an ancient beautiful timber-framed house, and I remember taking a boat down the Jhelum and looking at all the lovely palaces of the Dogra rulers, so this sense of history, of old building ageing with grace, just grew with me as a child and I think that’s what has continued in my work as well.”

Excerpts from a conversation with Narain Lambah….

How did architectural conservation become important to you?
I was studying architecture and was drawn to urban issues that had to do with an interface between the old and the new. I was very keen to learn from American architect Joseph Allen Stein, who designed all the iconic buildings in Delhi like the India International Centre, Ford Foundation and India Habitat Centre. Working in his studio for two years, I began understanding that a lot of design and good architecture has to respond to the context — often historical context. That led me to explore conservation. I believe contextual design is something that is very important, which we haven’t yet mastered in India.

What’s your take on (the lack of) maintaining this architectural balance in Mumbai?
The sad part is that we have beautiful buildings and historical legacy in Mumbai, but our planners (and especially our politicians) haven’t been very sensitive, so there is unplanned growth in pockets. For example, when the mills were demolished, Charles Correa had a great idea for pooling in all the open spaces — we could have had one the size of Central Park in Parel; and because of a really narrow vision, they chopped it off into parcels, so we lost an unbelievable opportunity for the city. And I hope it doesn’t happen again with the eastern waterfront development. We need to look at everything holistically, which somehow gets sacrificed at the altar of political requirements or short- term goals.

We tend to bask in the end result, what’s the process of getting to it?
A lot of time goes in! I started working on the Royal Opera House in 2008 and we opened the building in 2016. Money was an issue, because there are no government funds or incentives for heritage buildings that are privately owned. It was listed among the 100 endangered monuments in the world by the World Monuments Fund, and then when it came to funding it, there was absolutely zero support. It is not economically feasible today to run a theatre or a cinema hall so it was a leap of faith. The whole team and my clients (the owners) took a huge risk, but with a conviction that it’s too precious a building to let go! Then there was red tape and it took numerous years to get permissions. The challenges should have been structural repairs, interior restoration and things like getting the sound and acoustics right or putting in air conditioning in a building that didn’t even have fans to begin with…. But it’s richly rewarding once it’s done.

 

What about Bikaner House, Delhi? What was the story there?
Bikaner (House) was amazing, thanks to a chief minister with a sense of clarity and crystal-clear decision-making! Vasundhara Raje said, ‘I want Bikaner House to be the calling card for Rajasthan in Delhi’. She gave us nine months to get our act together, to get the building in shape. We were working with the government, and the same kind of engineers and contractors that are typical, but since she was so clear of the final vision for the project, everything just fell into place. Now we are working on the first floor of the same building, it’s going to get expanded and there will be a little cafe and a bookshop.

Which project is closest to your heart?
I think one of my favourite projects of all time has been the 15th-century Maitreya Buddha temple that I worked on in Basgo, Ladakh (which earned her firm an award of excellence from the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for conservation). It was a hard project, lasting three years, with repeated trips while my daughter was very young. It was in a small remote village, without electricity, running water, or lavatories…. A current project I am excited about is working on the Teen Murti House — the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, in Delhi, because it is such a beautiful stately building.

How relevant is heritage today?
“We are losing it too fast! My mother took me to Kanchipuram when I was 10, because she loved buying sarees from the loom, direct from the weaver. I remember it as a magical town with streets of verandahs, timber columns and sloping tiled roofs. Last year I was appointed by the government of India as the city anchor for Kanchipuram, and when I went back I was devastated, because the temple survived, but all those streets and those beautiful rows of houses are replaced by Alucobond and concrete and horrible new buildings. We already lost such a valuable part of our heritage and if now we—this generation—doesn’t do something about it, we won’t have anything left to save in the next few decades.”

What do you consider ‘Indianness’?
‘Indianness’ is not homogenous, it is not a single being, it is like a multi-layered curry with 20 different spices and wafting flavours; you get a note of cinnamon, a hint of clove; you discover later on your palate an aftertaste of asafoetida…and for me that is India. It’s multi-cultured, intense, layered, sometimes conflicting, sometimes contradictory but it is not one single unified whole. For all the chaos, there is still a system in it, there’s a meaning to it.

What does design mean to you?
It is something that is intrinsic — a distillation of a whole lot of feelings and moods. When you try and confuse it with too many things it gets lost. It balances form, functions, aesthetics and yet remains intuitive, because it can’t be put on, acquired or faked.

How do you focus and filter out the noise?
Filtering is as important as listening. When I am approaching a conservation project it’s very important to first establish what the design intent of the original architect was. To keep a certain modesty in your own work and also be true to the spirit of place, while maintaining  context — whether it is the geographical, design or material context of that particular site — in a harmonious balance with your own judgement as a designer.

 

Is some of it based on investigation?
Conservation is forensic in its techniques. We have to rely on paint scraps to figure out the oldest layer and original colour, for instance. You have to keep yourself open to looking for clues. In the Royal Opera House, we had no idea balconies existed when we began the project. Research uncovered old photographs which had those balconies, so we removed the art deco panelling and behind it we found skeletal structural members. Rifling through things in the basement, we found the little cherub and a little plaster cast that originally belonged to that balcony, and from that we were able to just piece things together.

You’ve been invited to deliver the Geoffrey Bawa memorial lecture in Sri Lanka….
I feel overwhelmed and humbled. He (Bawa), Joseph Stein and Charles Correa were the most iconic South Asian architects. Woman architects don’t get acknowledged, and even otherwise it’s such an honour. That’s my latest high, so I am going to just soak it in, and promise myself a week in Sri Lanka, living in Geoffrey Bawa’s house and meditating!

Do you feel a sense of achievement?
I just feel a sense of responsibility. I’ve never had a large vision or a master plan — one project led to another, and frustration about a project not moving along led me to something else while waiting; so that’s how my career has found its trajectory.

When will you rest on your laurels?
I don’t want to. I think architects should die with their boots on — or at least at the drafting table! It’s a career where the rewards are very slow; by the time others have retired, you peak as an architect. I worked with Stein in his studio when he was in his eighties, I have seen Correa working till he turned 80 and I don’t want to retire, I want to just work on the projects that will feed my soul.

A Rebel Spirit: Suhani Pittie

12 Wednesday Apr 2017

Posted by in Fashion & Style, Interviews (All), Interviews: Lifestyle, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Published: Verve Magazine, April 2017
Image Credit (Suhani Pittie): Nishat Fatima

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“To be a pioneer means to champion the authority of your own thoughts…your own creative imagination. To bring every genius idea forward. To be precise, but to also allow spontaneity.” Suhani Pittie’s words describe work that may — and should — lead to diverse opinions; for something to be fresh and path-breaking, it must create discomfort. Hyderabad-based Pittie’s jewellery does just that. She describes it as “luxurious but melancholic” and when you hold one of her designs in your hand, you understand exactly what she means. It’s delicate but strong, fine but chunky; it’s bold and yet has elements of the traditional, all the while being “respectful of India, its craft and heritage”.

The label that began formally in 2005 can be considered a trailblazer for its welding of the modern and the conventional but, more importantly, for growing into a self-sufficient business catering to Indians the world over. There is a flagship store in Hyderabad, an online shopping portal on suhanipittie.com (besides being available in offline retail outlets like Ensemble and Aza across the country, and abroad, commissioned by the Museum of Arts and Design) and a new line ‘Dooi by SP’ on Myntra, while also undertaking corporate and festive gifting, wedding lines (which include jewellery for the bride, gifts and decor) and bespoke pieces. And if that isn’t enough, Pittie has also partnered with a technology company which works on a CSR model in the renewable energy space in rural India, called socialsolar.in.

Kolkata-born Pittie’s career choice can be traced back to a rudimentary moment — when she punctured a piece of old silver and bent it; a relative wore it around their neck and someone said, “That’s magic!” Pittie recalls, “When I started, it was an open ground. With my love for India stemmed this deep desire to show new, innovative possibilities of age-old craft and, via that, to explore my own talent. I had never intended to get into this field. Today, it’s no more about me. I want to build a remarkable company, generate more employment, expand skill sets amongst rural women, and raise the standard of living of all our employees, to ensure that they can afford to send their children to school. I’m reaching out to a bigger universe — en route to building something unique…a company with a great product and a warm heart….” What’s striking is what she counts as her greatest achievement. Her first karigar is still working with her today.

Pittie began, as many creative souls do, on a whim, not armed with knowledge or market analysis. “I was new to Hyderabad. I hired one worker. I made 12 pieces with very little capital. And everything got sold. How do you work with metal, when you don’t know how to do it yourself?” As she struggled to find a foothold in a competitive industry, she read every book on the tools and manufacturing of silver. Even today, when 20 to 25 unique pieces are sampled daily, Pittie believes the brand is exactly what it started out as. “Unapologetically individualistic. There is heart in every piece. Non-conforming, yet adhering to values. Destabilising yet disciplined. Beautiful yet rebellious. Paradoxical, really.” And she continues to put a lot of herself in her work: “My jewellery is very reflective of my personal journey at that moment of time. The silence of metal surfaces in tandem with the rebelliousness of design.”

Despite having a corporate structure with departments and managers, projections and targets, Pittie takes a distinctive and free-spirited approach to design. “I execute everything in this department. It’s very emotive — what I’m feeling at the moment, what’s moved me. It could be turbulent. It could be romantic.” Once the thoughts and initial sketches are in, she begins collaborating with her production manager to work out their feasibility. “I was expecting alarm — the day I told him that we are going to make our own metal because I want ‘greyish silver’. But he looked at me and said, ‘That’s what we always do. We invent, no, ma’am?’” She works with a vast range of materials: copper, silver, steel, brass, thermocol (styrofoam), Bakelite and acrylic, to name a few. “I’m not schooled in this field. So it has become my playground…. It was not frivolous when it started and it isn’t frivolous now. The aim has always been to be brave and soar.”

Pittie is the youngest of three artistically-inclined sisters — Kolkata-based fashion designer Anamika Khanna, known to have modernised traditional Indian garments, and Mumbai-based Suruchi Choksi, an abstract artist. “The age gap is tremendous (ten and seven respectively). We didn’t get much time together. I spent all my time outside the house — I was head girl at my school and into extracurricular activities: elocution, debate, quiz, dance, football….” Pittie, who’s been vegan for 20 years, is a graduate in Indian classical music, and was once in a band. Despite her petite frame, she describes herself as “tough” and finds comfort in a “personal, unpretentious” home that has “a lot of books, monster trucks and only beanbags to sit on”.

By those who know her, 36-year-old Pittie, who works in tandem with her husband Stouvant Pittie (a director with the company), has been described as childlike in her irrepressible affinity for a fairy-tale world that soaks up imagination and spits out creativity. You can tell, because she fangirls over Harry Potter — “J.K. Rowling made me believe it was possible even when it seemed impossible. I’m definitely a Gryffindor, but I want to be like Luna Lovegood — so pure and wise.” And then, the woman who believes in magic has a reading list that is steeped in reality. She hasn’t missed a single edition of Time magazine for 14 years, and pours through The Economic Times daily, is interested in public leaders, economics and administration, is currently on Music of the Spinning Wheel: Mahatma Gandhi’s Manifesto for the Internet Age, and watches American entrepreneurial reality show Shark Tank. Pittie, despite the success, admits that she “can’t slow down”. She thrives on “razor-sharp focus” (undiluted by social media), enjoys her own company and of those whom she describes as progressive. “People with unique ideas and clarity. Who debate and challenge. And I’m blessed to have some in my life. It keeps the machine going.”

Suhani Speak

“The current non-precious jewellery market in India is seeing something incredible and unprecedented. It’s also a circle really. Customers need more options, hence are more accepting. That encourages more individuals to take the risk and get into the field. Jewellery, which held ‘locker sentiment’, is now being seen more for composition value and its voice. It’s a great time to be in the industry: challenging but so much more welcoming! More products, more experiments and diverse raw material have been entering the market. Non-precious jewellery could be such a strong dialogue of now, for now.”

“My buyer is aged from 17 to 72. They are women, from every part of the country, who are not afraid to wear their values like a badge.”

“I have never been a victim of trends, and I don’t desire for my clients to ever be. I want to give them memories, stories, beauty and vulnerability. I don’t want to give them ‘objects’ of today. I want my pieces to be purveyors of pure design and at the same time a narrative of the times we live in.”

“You are emphasising your own expression, your own ideals and inspirations and you are designing the future. Your humble attempts can change the landscape of an industry. To be propelled by love and beauty and instances and events around the world and to physically craft them into tangibility…that is extreme responsibility.”

“Kolkata and Hyderabad both inspire me. They have such strong cultural influences and heritage. Kolkata inculcates in you discipline. It encourages you to debate at 5.30 a.m. next to the chai-wallah. Hyderabad is such a beautiful cosmos of old and new. There is so much tehzeeb in the culture, language. It teaches you to respect. So much of what I am is because of these two cities.”

“I have a brooch which is a miniature grandfather’s clock that I really treasure. It’s all minakari work, complete with a cuckoo bird that pops out when wound. Besides the design, it’s also technically superb. It boggles your mind that without machines such marvels could be made. There are some brooches I have which are made of the tiniest mosaic pieces (0.5 mm by 0.5 mm). The patience the artist must have had!”

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“Our show, Nowhere People (LFW 2016, focused on the plight of refugees), broke me and pulled me together on many levels. To take a painful topic and show jewellery that was distressed and broken, yet wearable and beautiful…. To have connected to the vulnerability of this paradox in a parallel world, with the audience, where they hugged me and cried…. To take a poem by Kenyan poet Warsan Shire Home, and translate each syllable of it into metal, that was, I would say humbly, my greatest moment.”

Curators of Style: Sussanne Khan, Farah Khan Ali & Simone Arora

11 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by in Interviews (All), Interviews: Cinema, Interviews: Cover Stories, Interviews: Lifestyle, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Published Verve Magazine, December 2014
Photograph by Rohan Shrestha

These stylish, poised women have created a name for themselves in the designing world, each with a distinctive sense of aesthetics and style. Sussanne Khan for her interior design and curated home store, Farah Khan Ali for her jewellery brand and Simone Arora for her fabric design and recently-opened concept home boutique. Sanjay and Zarine Khan’s daughters are creative, dedicated and spirited women of substance, discovers Verve

Verve Magazine December 2014 cover: Sussanne Khan, Farah Khan Ali, Simone Arora

It’s not a stretch of the imagination to expect that the younger lot of a famous film family are likely to be starry, diva-esque butterfly society women. It is an easy stereotype that gets associated with those who come from a family of means and natural access to the limelight. But Zarine and Sanjay Khan’s daughters appear to be quite the opposite. They are self-assured, strong-willed and independent, with a single-minded determination to excel and are deeply passionate about their work.

Producer, director and actor, Sanjay Khan and his interior designer wife, Zarine Khan (née Katrak) have four children. The first, 45-year-old Farah Khan Ali is married to DJ Aqeel and is the founder of the Farah Khan Fine Jewellery brand. Younger by a year, Simone, married to Ajay Arora, the owner of D’Decor home furnishings, has been instrumental in the creative aspect of the brand and has recently launched her own concept store, Simone. Thirty-six-year-old Sussanne, formerly married to Indian cinema actor and childhood sweetheart Hrithik Roshan, has followed her mother in interior design and has been working on her own store, The Charcoal Project, for the last few years. Zayed is the youngest, whom Sussanne considers to be “a boy version of me, my twin!” even though he is two years younger.

Through various interactions with the women in the family, you begin to draw a distinct sense of who they are. Fiercely protective about each other and extremely supportive, there is an easy camaraderie that can only be built up through a lifetime of nurturing. As Farah interjects, twice, “I love them to death and would do anything for them. I would even kill for them…not that I would ever kill anyone.”

Firm grounding
“It’s the values,” insists Zarine Khan, called the “firecracker of the family” by Sussanne. When you speak to her, you understand what her daughters are made of. Notwithstanding the strong creative and emotional influence their father has had on them, you come away knowing that they are reflections – albeit in their own unique ways – of their mother. She is crisp in her language, sharp in her observations and firm in her opinions. “They grew up with a lot of humanity in them, with gentleness and kindness and not an ounce of jealousy. Even though we had cars at our disposal, we had rules. Once by car, the next time by bus.” Simone speaks up. “We were not raised to be competitive, to be compared or be critical. We complemented each other.” And the importance given to the legacy of education, impressed upon them by their father who himself couldn’t complete his education due to lack of funds. Farah: “We were taught to value people and relationships over things. People can never be replaced; things can be. If Simone buys something bigger, I won’t envy her, I’ll be happy that I can also use it. We share bags, clothes, shoes, jewellery, memories and laughter.”

Well-travelled and well-exposed to the world, fond of the European lifestyle and far from a slacker, Zarine continues to work for her select clientele even today. It is a family of early risers and active swimmers, with full workdays. “Despite having all the luxuries of being a star wife, I continued to work. I’ve impressed upon them the need to avoid idle gossip.”

Sussanne recalls, “Our mother left us with the thought that we must try and be the best we could be and choose to do something that would give us creative satisfaction. Watching her was the biggest example.”

Meeting the Khans
I had first seen Sussanne at a tony suburban café with her then-fiancé Hrithik Roshan, sharing conversation and coffee just before the launch of his first film, Kaho Na Pyaar Hai (2000). They looked at ease with each other, made a lovely couple and suggested a genteel persona. No one knew that he would soon take the industry by storm. Sussanne is not too different today, nearly 15 years later. While her youthful face may be etched with the trials of a woman, she has an easy charm that you warm up to instantly. The girl who has a tattoo on her arm that reads, ‘Follow your sunshine’, is polite, courteous as a host, punctilious and an amiable conversationalist.

Farah appears to be more difficult to pin down, as she misses the first interview opportunity and leaves hurriedly through the second, with a promise to send an e-mail message. She surprises you by actually doing so, and then calling and texting after. You are left amused, because this grown woman of a well-established brand is droll and sincere and as she puts it, somehow manages to find “method to the madness”. Simone wants to be heard. With the launch of her store, this is her chance to come into her own, in the eye of the media, and she is eager to make her voice and name felt.

Simone: The one in the background
Simone, the first to tie the knot at the age of 21, joined her husband as the creative director of his business. At the time, Ajay Arora used to manufacture garments. Zarine Khan felt the greater potential of a furnishings line, and seeing the business sense in it, Simone and Ajay took up the challenge. They bought designs from Italy, machines from Belgium and started the process of creating samples for the international fairs. Simone, with her unerring eye for colour, was in charge of creating the designs and combinations. Now, after 15 years, the D’Decor brand is the world’s largest exporter of home furnishing fabrics. Four years ago, they turned their attention to the local market with Gauri and Shah Rukh Khan as brand ambassadors.

“After being an anonymous contributor to D’Decor (while it was the company that made me who I am), I felt it was time to express myself and create an identity of my own.” Inspired by the process of designing her own home, Amore, and the feedback she received, Simone took forward the idea of her own store. She wanted a modern space hosted in a classic heritage building and Amarchand Mansion in South Mumbai provided exactly that. The store, Simone, launched just over two months ago, is nature-inspired, with curated pieces from international brands. “It was a hard journey, a labour of love. It had to embody me and my design sensibility. Simone is like a canvas, and everything that I display is the hero. I like to accessorise on simple cuts and monochromatic palettes. We have everything for the home, including the signature scent of Simone.” (Read more about Simone Arora.)

Farah: The party girl grown up
Farah was the one who floundered the most in choosing a career. Having assisted her father in the television production of his serials and dabbled in interior designing, she came into her own accidentally. Taking off for a course in gemmology at the GIA (USA), she thought it would be a good cover for a fun social life. “On the first day of my class, I learned that gemmology was the study of the chemical, optical and physical properties of 99 minerals and their gemstone varieties. I was in total shock as it involved all the sciences I had despised in school! Having made a promise to my dad to excel, I ended up becoming the ‘Indian nerd’ instead of the ‘party animal’.” She topped her class and there was no looking back. “The Bollywood connection only helped open doors initially; but it was my work eventually that made people keep coming back. I struggled hard – I had no investment of my own to begin with, so I began creating designs on paper that were breathtakingly beautiful. I spent hours sketching, rendering and painting life into each piece.”

Over the years, from retailing with other jewellers to starting her own store and then facing legal trouble with a disgruntled financial partner, Farah emerged surer, wiser and stronger as a businesswoman, able to take her brand to the next level. Having to start financially all over again, she then secured a loan and began her own top-of-the-line manufacturing unit. In 2013 she re-opened her showroom in Bandra in a bigger way; and just last month, Farah achieved another milestone by signing up as a designer for Tanishq and becoming the first designer approved by them to take care of the manufacturing, having met the strict  standards of the Tata Group. “I see the world in a magical perspective where everything I see, I see as design. Design for me begins with a strong emotion. My thoughts are conceived in my overactive imagination that allows me the freedom to make the impossible possible.” (Read more about Farah Khan Ali.)

Sussanne: The spirited dreamer
Sussanne, being the youngest, used to accompany her mother on the latter’s interior projects. Her mother recalls fondly, “She could make out the difference between fawn and beige!” She has always been attracted to a strong masculine sensibility, despite her petite feminine appearance. “I love metal, Gothic, industrial, shabby chic. Metal mixed with leather and dark wood, elements of nature.” A strong believer in the energy radiated by metal, Sussanne’s style is about the bolder, stoic structures balanced with the frivolous and fun using European influences, like that of French Rococo and Renaissance.

After Sophia College in Mumbai, she went to Brooks College in Long Beach California to study interior design. Like her father, she got interested in the history of art and architecture. “As a designer you have to ensure that what you are giving your clients is unique. You also have to get to know them well so that you can have them feel the best in their space. In the setting you have to think of stories, and the story is more important than the product.”

Talking about the inspiration behind The Charcoal Project, her face is more alive than ever. “Space can be grey and lifeless; charcoal is ugly. But when you light it, it sparks up. When a designer or person ignites a site or project it almost glows, as life is breathed into it. Design is a feeling. It elevates you. It makes you feel good. It is also designing your thoughts, and about how to deal with certain situations in your life.” (Read more about Sussanne Khan.)

Entertaining as a lifestyle
All three sisters strongly believe that the exposure while growing up has led to their creativity. Sussanne: “The influence of the world of design and the aesthetic value of knowing how important your home or your way of living is has been brought in by both parents equally. My father and mother (who is a Parsi) are both passionate about entertainment, with visitors from all over the world, not just the film fraternity. They have the most fabulous spread of exotic foods. The home was also like their temple.” Sussanne remembers watching her mother put together the most beautiful table settings. Lemon and white, or a combination of sea green, in handcrafted, cross-stitched French linen, flower arrangements, silver and cut glass all formed a harmonious composition. “In other homes, dining is part of the living room. In our home it was kept separate, giving it that importance. If the family was in the house, we always ate every meal together. We were never encouraged to eat alone in our room.” Sussanne, who has two sons, Hrehaan (8) and Hridhaan (6); Farah, who has a son, Azaan (11) and daughter, Fizaa (9); and Simone, who has three children – boys Armaan (18), Yuraaz (17) and a daughter Adah (11) – have continued this tradition with the next generation. (Read more: What do Sussanne, Farah and Simone have in their homes?)

And to date, the smaller, intimate gatherings are what they value the most. Farah, the acknowledged party girl admits, “Twenty years ago entertaining meant going out all night and breaking all the curfews, getting caught, getting fired. Now entertaining means being with my family and people I care about, my close friends. It’s not about being everywhere or at Page 3 parties. It’s about being with people who matter.”

Making relationships work
Farah, who renewed wedding vows with husband DJ Aqeel on their 10th wedding anniversary in Goa, shares that they are both very different people – one “living by the day” and the other “by the night”, and all marriages have their own challenges. “There is no marriage that is perfect and it requires a lot of hard work like any relationship. Some succeed, some don’t, and some keep trying, some leave and some stay. Being successfully married in any actor’s life is a miracle because your marriage is never a private affair and things that any other couple could have worked out easily become a mammoth issue because of a lack of total privacy. Sometimes less ‘concern’ by others is much nicer.” Talking about her sister, Farah says, “Sussanne is my precious baby and Hrithik is my younger brother who I love and adore with all my heart. I will always be there for both of them and wish things work out eventually, but if they don’t, I will have no choice but to accept that too. Equations change all the time but certain bonds transcend all.”

Sussanne, in a different conversation, when asked whom she relies upon during trying moments, shares that while family is always at hand, she is a bit of a loner and a private person and remains inspired by great thinkers like Einstein and Steve Jobs. “There are times when you have to make a choice and people may not think it’s the right choice, but you have to be true to yourself in life. You have to live in your own head, and you don’t have to live in anyone else’s head. It’s important for human beings to value their instinct and their own gut more than any suggestion or any kind of influence from the outside.”

The sibling equation
As evidenced at the shoot, Simone wields easy authority over Farah. Farah reminisces from their childhood: “She was the head girl; I was the naughty girl. She was neat and organised; I was untidy and disorganised. Simone had timetables on one side of the wall; I had rock stars and pop stars. She would want to wake up in the morning to study. I would want to stay up all night and not study. We had a line dividing our parts of the room and if either one crossed that line they would get a slap! She married the first man she cared about. I dated many frogs before I met my prince.”

Sussanne, who is an amalgamation of the two of them in terms of personality, finds a balance. “At work I maintain a certain order, but there is also a strong element of a flower child in me, which likes to enjoy life and music.” She talks about their childhood, “There would be crazy fighting growing up – actual physical fights. My sisters were fighting over a dress, and my mom, who knew how to shut us up, took the dress and cut it in the middle and gave each of them half! My parents never took sides or indulged us to the level of spoiling us. They taught us to appreciate what we have and to not ever think that something that is expensive will make us feel or look better.”

Coming of age
The turning point in their lives came soon after their father’s fire accident while shooting on the sets of the television series, The Sword of Tipu Sultan. As teenagers they had to come to terms with the fact that their father may not make it. “We saw our mother stand up, so tough against all the odds stacked up against her. We thought, come what may, we are going to be like her, going to be strong.”

Eighty-two operations and 103 bottles of blood later, he survived. Simone feels it taught them perseverance and determination, “the never-say-die spirit, how to appreciate life and all its offerings.” In the hospital room, he saw the staff come in to clean, and all he wanted was to switch places with them – he was in such extreme pain. “The doctors wanted us to amputate his hands, saying that it was the only way he would survive.” Their mother refused. Eventually, post his recovery, he went back to completing Tipu Sultan, even riding horseback in the heat of Rajasthan.

Farah needed to release the stress and turned to dance with Shiamak Davar’s troupe. “The discipline that I learned is what I put into my work today. From a youngster who didn’t care about things I became this perfectionist. It changed me overnight. I became more like Simone!”

She continues to sum up the go-getter anthem of the family that has seen many ups and downs, together and individually. “It’s not where you are born; it’s what you make of your life. I have seen the rich squander away their legacy and have seen the poor man make history. Carve your own destiny…only you can.”

Sussing Out Sussanne

10 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by in Interviews (All), Interviews: Lifestyle, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Vervemagazine.in January 2015
Photograph by Rohan Shrestha

14 things you didn’t know about Sussanne Khan. (Like how she’s hooked onto Scandal at the moment, and is a complete loner….)

Sussanne

EARNING IT “The concept of ‘earning it’, which I have learned from Hrithik (Roshan, her ex-husband), which he’s taught our kids. We keep a ‘victory log’ – if you do something good in the day, then you earn that benefit. If our children’s friends are buying a game, they wouldn’t buy one without checking with me if they have earned it.”

VALUES “My children are very aware of the value of money. Once my sons were playing and my younger son was about to do something and the older one corrected him and said ‘don’t do it – it’s too expensive, we can’t afford it’.”

CHILDREN “My children are powerhouses of energy. They have a strong sense of design too. They have apps, like Minecraft, where they create cities. They look at my books and work on innovations for their own spaces.”

DESIGN “We used to get a whole bunch of home magazines. I was five years old and I was very fascinated by the whole world of design.”

COMPLETE PICTURE “For me it’s not just about furniture or interior design. It is also about architectural interiors and creating a language that translates from the entire building or home completely – like a master plan.”

COLOUR “I am very attracted to grey – it’s my favourite colour.”

ON BEING A LONER “I’m quite a loner – a private person. I like to be on my own a lot. I love music and reading. I like understanding the great minds of the past – like Einstein and Steve Jobs. I find their quotes very inspiring and motivational.”

SIBLING LOVE “I was always protected – I was a baby in front of them. While growing up, both of them became like second mothers to me. You ape your sisters.”

ON FARAH “I used to watch Farah, who was a fabulous dancer. My friends and I used to take dance lessons from her.”

COOKING “After achieving a certain amount of success in my design world, I would like to take some time off and take courses in cooking all over the world, in places like Tuscany and France. To learn the art of making cakes and icing.”

ENTERTAINING… “Is casual, but with flowers and candles and a cozy vibe.”

WORK DAY “Wake up at 7am, have breakfast with the kids before they leave for school. I have diaries with things to do, lists and for various parts of my life. I plan my day and prioritise. I get to work at 9:30 am and use the morning hours to do my design work. Post lunch I look into administration. By the time my children and I are together at home it’s 6:30 pm. We hang out and chat. They eat their dinner. I read them a story when they go to bed.”

ON THE TELLY “Once they sleep I watch my TV Shows. I’m hooked onto Scandal right now, along with How To Get Away With Murder, Modern Family and Madam Secretary. You see how people are in different parts of the world. I want to be like Olivia Pope and her gladiators.”

GOING OUT “I prefer not to go out weeknights. I’m too tired to make the effort. Earlier I used to, but now I find it a very pointless exercise. I can’t bear that Page 3 thing anymore! On the weekend I like to go out, meet my friends, have dinner and spend a lot of time with my family on Sunday.”

Finding Farah

10 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by in Interviews (All), Interviews: Lifestyle, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Vervemagazine.in January 2014
Photography by Rohan Shrestha

11 things you didn’t know about Farah Khan Ali including her tenacity, life crises and birth….

Farah Khan Ali for Verve Magazine

DEFORMITY SCARE “I was an 8-month premature forceps baby, who at birth looked deformed because the doctor used the forceps incorrectly to deliver me and had dented my face, particularly my nose and the back of my head in doing so. He then had the gall to tell my parents that I was a ‘mongoloid’ baby. My parents were horrified and could not believe that their first child was disabled. My face came back to its original shape within a month.”

REAL WORLD “I had never travelled by any form of public transport before I was 15. My parents wanted me to sit next to the common man and understand the frustrations he goes through on a daily basis. The first day as I stood at the bus stop attempting to get on, the bus arrived and I was left watching the bus drive away. In those three years that I travelled by train and bus I turned into a tigress from a domesticated cat, having been subjected to pinching, feeling and dirty stares of men who I learnt to kick and slap in the event of having been eve teased.”

BOLLYWOOD FRIENDS “In their growing years, Sussanne and Zayed looked up to me along with their friends that included actor Kunal Kapoor, Abhay Deol, and producer Goldie Behl because they all considered me ‘cool’, as I was the one who partied the most. I also have great memories with Tina Khanna and we practically grew up together. More than half the people in the industry today are my childhood or school friends or family friends and Bollywood is a very essential aspect of my everyday life.”

CRUSHES “In school when I was 9 years old, in the 4th grade. I’ve had many crushes in the span of my growing years that were relegated to holding hands and stealing kisses. My filmy crush was Bobby Deol when I was 15 years old, where we wrote cards to each other and held hands. Thereafter my other filmy crushes were Kumar Gaurav and Sanjay Dutt and there was a time I would dream about them. You can only imagine how heartbroken I was when Kumar Gaurav got married.”

FOOD “I don’t eat to live, I live to eat. I associate food with memories, moments. I love health food.”

TV PRODUCTION “I used to assist my dad in his television production and I ended up being executive producer on many of his television shows. I dabbled with it alongside my jewellery design career and I produced the two-part series on Hrithik Roshan titledHrithik – The Man Behind The Star, which was showcased on Sony television.”

HRITHIK ROSHAN “I have known him since childhood and there is so much more to him than just his superstar status. If there is one person who is good from within, it is him. He has risen, he has flown, and he has made his mark. He has faltered, he has fallen, and he has forgiven. He is a real person and someone I love dearly as my brother no matter what. He will always be a very important part of my life. I am very guarded about my relationship with him because he is my family and there are some things I will not share with even my closest friends about family because my family means my world and I will always be there, by their side no matter what the consequences.”

AQEEL “My meeting with Aqeel was purely accidental at an anniversary celebration of my close friend. He was the DJ at a very snobbish society event with all my south Bombay friends. I was 25 years old. After which, I met him at a traffic signal and then at a popular discotheque at the Taj. My relationship with Aqeel was the talk of a lot of gossip in my social strata because we both came from different economic backgrounds. It was after two years of dating that we decided that we wanted to formalise our relationship. I told my father that I was in love with a DJ, who had long hair, wore a ponytail, was not a college graduate, who smoked and drank. I figured that if I told him all of Aqeel’s shortcomings first, he would not be disappointed any further. As soon as he met my father, he flashed his 120-watt smile and I think that broke the ice because my dad embraced him in a big hug and said, ‘Welcome to the family’.”

CRISIS AT WORK “In 2009, I tied up with a friend’s cousin to manufacture jewellery and he became a 50% shareholder in my company. We opened my first retail showroom under my brand name Farah Khan Fine Jewellery in the year 2010 (17 years after I had first started off my jewellery career). By the middle of 2011 I realised that no matter how much we sold, we were always short of funds to manufacture more pieces of jewellery. I realised then that my partner was in a financial mess and that it was time for me to move on. He did not take it well and took me to court to prevent me from using my own brand name because it was registered under our company’s name.

I could not believe that the brand I had so lovingly built all these years was on the verge of being taken away by someone else. I had very negative thoughts about him till until one day when I decided that if all failed I would restart my life because I had the talent, I had the will and I had the tenacity to see it through.

The day I forgave my ex-partner, as if by miracle, during our arbitration session, the odds that were against me turned in my favour. He asked me for an out-of-court settlement and I agreed. I had spent hours, days and weeks with many lawyers and law firms. My life changed overnight from just a designer to a businesswoman.”

PRET LINE “Last year I launched FK Prêt line, which is a line of beautiful jewels in a range that starts from Rs 25,000/- and was a huge success. Presently we retail only in Mumbai and are also available online on http://www.farahkhanfinejewellery.com but this year we hope to have international presence in at least two new cities.”

PERSONALITY “I am a positive person by nature and believe the glass is always half full rather than half empty. Even in the darkest hour I look for the light because I believe light follows darkness. There are no perfect situations and we all must make perfect lives of what we have. Life isn’t about giving up; it’s about hanging on, for success comes to those that never give up.”

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Simone Arora

10 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by in Interviews (All), Interviews: Lifestyle, Publication: Verve Magazine

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Vervemagazine.in January 2015. Photograph by Rohan Shrestha

Simone Arora for Verve Magazine

DAY “I am the earliest riser in the family. I wake up at 6:30 am. I like my swim in the morning – it gives me time to think. I enjoy breakfast after a massage (3-4 times a week), following which is a full day at work.

NIGHT “I sleep the earliest too! I’m not a night person. I like to party once in a while, but I like my early morning sun.”

CHILDREN “My boys are in the US. One is in college and the other in prep school; my daughter is here in school. My children grew up while I worked. They are used to me travelling.”

MOTHERHOOD “I’ve never had too much quantity time with them. But spent a lot of quality time. I cuddle them a lot, I kiss them a lot, but I find it hard to spend too much time with them. I feel guilty about that.”

WORK “I go in everyday to my store, Simone; Monday is off, but I plan to go in at least four times a week in the future. I’m passionate about my work, I can sleep in my workplace.”

SIBLING LOVE “Farah and I grew up together but we were poles apart. She became by best friend after I got married.”

GROWING UP “We were all raised to be strong as people. There is too much to be thankful about. With the opportunity and platform that we have, we can’t complain. We’ve always taken responsibility for our decisions and to not play the blame game.”

ENTERTAINING “I like smaller gatherings of 10-15 people. I like to meet over dinner, at friends’ homes, or with family. Basically, laughing and joking, with good food and music.”

D’DECOR “We attended five international home furnishings fairs annually for 15 years. I travelled nearly once a month.”

DESIGN “Simone’s strong forte is colour and combinations. How to mix the solids with the patterns. Her style is also universal and subtle. It has a character that appeals to everyone.” – Sussanne