Bohemian Rhapsody

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Blogging works. It opens up your world, gives you voice- good. Gives you an audience- better. An interactive contributing audience- best. This post is proof of that. I wrote about Tribal Route- this most amazing store. And Nihar Mehta whose brainchild that was, called me up one weekend & said - there's this house I just saw, its interesting- maybe you want to cover it. Great! Infact, awesome. Numbers were exchanged & I called to hear this accented voice give me directions- she warned me it's not luxurious or anything-only colourful. I muttered something about- in a home, imagination & love is all that matters. And landed up. The door opens to show this seriously pretty firang in her terrace flat. Diana Linda turned out to be an Italian who works with 'Doctors without Borders' and has lived in Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan & Pakistan. Wow.
I entered this colourful space which was rather bohemian & very yes- definitely kitschy. This home was a patchworkof collages, colourful curtains, Tibetan paintings & life sized illustrations of aliens. As I was moving around taking pictures, we got chatting & Diana told me that of all the countries she's lived in and says India gives her a 'buzz' -an energy like no other country.

This is for all of you out there who are renters, paying guests and generally people who can't drive nails & hang pictures on walls that can't be painted. Some neat tricks on how to make the space you live in, your own.

Diana's dressing table/box. She wore the most interesting jewellery & stores her collection in this antique jewllery box. The painted mini cupboard & the painted Tray are both local (Bandra) finds. The purse (diana is a huge bag collector) is from Goa.


Diana makes these super colourful collages. She told me she wanted to capture the colour, spirituality, modernity, tradition, Bollywood, Glamour & the various faces of India.

She also loves Tagore's poetry & picked this poster & the antique mirror from Delhi.

Another unique feature in this house is the way she has treated the floor. Vibrant patchwork quilts add colour. Aren't the Tantra coasters a brilliant touch? The floor pillows are from Zeba & Fabindia ( another fantastic place for contemporaty Indian fabrics & furnishing) The floor comes alive with various materials and types of mats, carpets & quilts.

Tibetan Mandala paintings are from Ladakh & this super kitschy sequinned bag is from Ogaan, Delhi adorn the walls.

And this is the idea that gets my vote. Diana is a traveller & has moved cities & countries more often than some of us vacation. She lives out of boxes. Literally. So what does she do? She paints them to suit her style- what a fantastic way to turn functionality into aesthetics!

The box right on top is the FishFry box in which came psychadelic sports shoes designed by Manish Arora (Diana loves this designer's colourful extravagant style) These photographed like a dream and you can see the results on my flickr.

Diana has herself designed this bag (which she doesn't carry around, but is a clever storage and decor idea!) & jacket which she loves to wear.

And these are the beautiful & beautifully adorned hands that created the colour & magic you just saw. I just HAD to photograph her hands. The jewellery is from Afghanistan & Rajasthan, India.

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