Artefacts, Incorporated

Homing In with
                                      _____________ TANUSHREE CHATTERJEE

Architect Karan Grover’s Baroda home houses objets d’art from across the world

The unassuming driveway gives no indication about what lies in store inside architect Karan Grover’s house. But it’s the iron grill partition — put together from various ancient beams, pillars, posts and even portions of a balcony — which separates the porch from the lawn, that reveals the fine sense of aesthetics running through the entire Grover house.

The porch at the entrance is marked by works of tribal art collected from the remote scapes of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Bastar, while the portico is dotted with pieces of double ikat, telia rumal and other objects from the Indian heartland.

A glance through the house only confirms the couple’s taste for tribal and traditional artefacts. On the wall opposite the entrance hangs a huge Bhupen Khakkar painting. To complement the bright colours in the painting, the backdrop has been painted in royal blue, which livens up the entire living room. The adjoining wall has a display of paintings by eminent artists — Ghulam Sheikh, Rini Dhumal and Anjolie Ela Menon among them — from around the country.

And next to the brilliant display of paintings, which can acquire pride of place in any art gallery, is another magnificent display of Ganpatis in various forms, made out of materials like stone, brass, copper or marble. Grover’s favourite Ganpati from the collection is the Panchmukhi Ganesha, gifted to him by the Rajmata of Jamnagar. As he says,‘‘I have collected them over a period of time, and have displayed them together only recently.’’ The corner next to the Ganpatis houses the Molela murals. ‘‘This craftsman has been awarded the Master Craftsman Award, but after many years of anonymity, we organised an exhibition of his works and this was the biggest one displayed there,’’ informs Grover.

Huge urulis, or traditional cooking vessels from Kerala, add to the traditional touch. But what’s interesting is the way traditional objects in the Grover home have been adapted to a modern lifestyle. Also, the traditional has been blended in beautifully with modern creations, such as the corner which is dedicated to the ultra-modern ceramic art of Jyotsna Bhatt. There are ceramic cats with whiskers, shy squirrels, bears and more fauna than you can guess. Says Nisha Grover, who likes to keep shifting the artefacts around the house: ‘‘As the famous West Asian saying goes, the day you stop building the house, you die.’’

Of course, there’s been a bit of converting around: the area with the paintings, Ganpatis and a dining table was actually designed as a living area, while the original living space, which is on the other side of the entrance, has been converted into a relaxation area. The addition of a buffer area, which has been covered partially, has virtually doubled the total built area, and given the house a feeling of lots of space.

The extended area has a rather unusual and very artistically designed couch, made, once again, out of pieces of old balconies, brackets and beams. Two wooden door panels opposite the couch have been interestingly used to display antiques and other brass artefacts. A janpatri, which is 500 years old, has also been framed and hung on the wall. Grover’s reason for the choice: ‘‘it has a Ganpati.’’

The niche in the dining area, originally designed for a refrigerator, has been painted in a vibrant blue, and houses beautiful miniature Jain paintings from Rajasthan. Another corner of the room is dedicated to the numerous photo frames collected from all over the world. Frames made of wrought iron, wood, silver and brass, collected from places as far apart as Spain and Nepal, jostle for space here. The walls of the Grover home are quite incredible too, in the manner and variety of objects displayed. In addition to paintings and frames, there are old muskets, swords and other quaint artefacts that do their bit for this tastefully done-up house.

Says Nisha, ‘‘our house has evolved over the years, it is not a one-day effort.’’
The family has its dining table placed in the ‘inside out’ extended area created by Karan. ‘‘We prefer having our meals out in the fresh air,’’ he explains. Though the lawns look unkempt from a distance, a closer look tells you it has been deliberately kept like that. The grass is trimmed and plants planted in arranged rows, but the variety of greens makes the lawn look dense and overgrown. The lawn seats are actually the tops of ornate stone columns and lanterns from Egypt and Nepal, while pretty terracotta bits and pieces hang from tree branches. Really, a look at the Grovers’ home is like a journey through ‘history counterpoised’.

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