Glimpses

(From top) • The huge gate that welcomes visitors to the first floor is the most enviable piece of the collection. This massive wooden door with brass embellishments is in a carved frame. It looks into an antique archway that surrounds a painting (copy of a Raghu Rai picture of Rajasthani women) on an old door mounted on the wall. • The first thing that greets you on entering the house is the lobby. Here, there is a huge drum playing pedestal to silver artefacts. Just behind this is a Rajasthani painting by Satish Gupta. Metal pots and marble pieces are thrown around all over the place. A unique chair made from a camel cart is placed against one of the walls. • This is the portico with two carved wooden pillars. The flooring is of Jaisalmer yellow stone. A shelf, also made from a camel cart, stands on one side of the door. The pots hanging from the ceiling have been picked up from Pokhran.

Pictures by Pabitra Das

Bits and pieces of Rajasthan abound at the Varma residence in New Alipore, lending it the feel of a lavish haveli amidst soft desert sands. Sharad Varma, a shipping entrepreneur, and his wife Mallika, who runs a Montessori called Kangaroo Kids, share a passion for traditional Indian furniture, especially the heavily-carved wooden variety from Rajasthan. The result is quite striking at their sprawling three-storey home.

?My late mother-in-law was from Ajmer and so Sharad spent a lot of time there. As a result, he was strongly influenced by the culture of Rajasthan. I, too, have always been very traditional in my taste. So, our likes about home interiors match quite well,? says Mallika. When they moved into this house one-and-a-half years ago, the couple decided to give it a traditional Rajasthani-style makeover with everything from doors and windows to furniture and artefacts bearing the state?s distinctive flavour.

?Many of Sharad?s friends are sons of thakurs who have converted their old havelis into hotels. Through them we learnt of dealers in old Rajasthani furniture. There is this huge furniture godown in Jodhpur from where we picked up all the stuff,? informs Mallika.

How to buy

Though there are people in Calcutta who replicate Rajasthani furniture designs, it?s best to go there for authenticity. While you will get the furniture in almost all the cities in Rajasthan, Kishangarh is particularly good for marble and for bedspreads and other home linen, Jaipur is best.

You have to make sure the quality of wood is good. It is very easy to camouflage the quality, but within six months its true colours will show. Go to a dealer you can trust. Take references before you make the trip.

Keep the size of your home in mind. Don?t buy things that will look out of place.

Display

Since most of the pieces are quite old, they will need some restoration. Primarily, they have to be polished very carefully. You don?t want to polish them so they look new, or they will lose their charm. The wood may also be chipped in places. Anything meant for outdoor use has to be waterproofed first.

For using Rajasthani doors and windows you will probably have to do some re-structuring. The doors and windows of real havelis are much higher than our homes.

Don?t overcrowd rooms. One big piece for each room, coordinated with matching smaller pieces, should do.

Maintain

The wood should be given a protective polish once a week. Silver, brass and copper artefacts are washed with soapy water, as polishing them will take away the antique look.