Living with Art

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Built in the heart of the city, this abode boasts warm interiors and refined tastes that balances bright colours with black, white and gray tones in perfect harmony

Text by Namita Gupta

Photos by Faheem Hussain

In today’s day and age when most homes have only nuclear families, this joint family that shares the same roof is an inspiration for many. Their contemporary home of about 15000 sq ft, with a 9,000 sq ft living space and 6,000 sq ft open green spaces, with a massive lawn in the center of the house, a gazebo, a patio and driveway for the car parking along with two garage spaces in Ulsoor, the heart of Bengaluru is as large as their hearts. The 10 bedroom house has two spacious living rooms, two dining rooms, an entertainment lounge, a basement, a gym, a utility room and two staff quarters and automated wooden gates.

“We are a traditional yet eclectic Indian Jain family with a diverse mix of ideologies and tastes. The entire design concept of our entire home ranges from a classic, Italian furniture design with Italian marble of various ranges running all over the house to a contemporary white marble home with straight line designs inspired by my acrylic on canvases all over including doors and windows designed by me. The overall idea was always to depict each individual that lives here. From this space, the idea was to have a green, organic and earthy feel with a massive outdoor space including a dreamy garden, trees, flowers, etc. and sculptures from our Art store in Delhi, handpicked from different parts of the world and many marble sculptures from Rajasthan. This along with the perfect weather to take inspiration from, while I could transport to my world of vibrant colours, to work on my unlimited number of canvases. Moreover, being in the heart of the city, you can never get away from the commercial aspects, which further inspired me to diversify my art and emerge into the home fashion space with Artychoke. So overall, I find serenity, happiness, love, peace and family from my home,” shares the artist, who is a graduate from the Delhi College of Art, New Delhi and has showcased her art globally, as she takes us around her impeccable and artsy abode. She has made positive inroads into the contemporary art scene in India as well as the US.

A passionate artist, Pragya’s love for all things artistic is visible in the many artworks that adorn the walls. The artist who has been awarded by the President of India, Late Dr. Abdul Kalam for excellence in Art, states, “I am not fond of blank walls. All the walls of my house are adorned with my paintings, new and old. I continuously rotate the art on my walls around. I paint something new, and until it goes to the next show, it decorates my house. It’s a great way for me to criticise my own work and it always works.” Today, her works are in the homes, offices of major collectors and million-dollar apartment across the world including Jindals and the Prestige Group in India and with various big art collectors in New York City.

The theme followed all around is a combination of both classic and contemporary to address the personalities of everyone living here. The Jain family purchased the first half (west wing) of the house in and second half (east wing) a few years later. This was then combined into a 15,000 sq ft mansion. Pragya and her husband Abhishek Jain moved into this house after spending many years in Boston. Ask her of her family that she cares for and loves dearly and she shares, “We are a large conventional and progressive family of six adults and two children (both 4 years old) who live here. My father-in-law, KC Jain, is a businessman and comes from a large joint family business background of mining (iron ore & chrome ore) from Ranchi, Bihar. My mother-in-law, Sunita Jain, comes from Rajasthan and belongs to a traditional family into the tea manufacturing business from Kolkata. My husband, Abhishek owns a modern Cx (customer experience) technology company, Terapact and we have a son named Arhaan. My brother-in-law, Aditya Jain is in the stone trading business – MLJ Granites and my sis-in-law Deepika Jain runs Artychoke events – an events company along with me and they have a daughter named Areeha. My in-laws have travelled the world extensively through their youth and even now and have collected interesting curios from various parts of the world. From our travels, we have also collected sculptures and artefacts that we cherish. We like to keep it relatively simple, elegant and uncluttered. The interior design of this house is a combined effort of a couple of interior designers, myself, my mother-in-law and inputs from every member of my family. The architect for the house was a Mumbai based architect, Mobin Bhojani.”

The Jain family has unleashed their desire for a diverse arty house that closely hews to their own particular tastes. Getting candid about her favourite space in the house Pragya adds, “Our garden is a special place where we not only have some wonderful trees and shrubs, but also have a small vegetable patch growing organic tomatoes, spinach, carrots and the like. Our most favourite part is the outdoor patio lounge where most of the important conversations of our life happen. Abhishek and I feel most relaxed there and spend most of our catch up time here. The greenery in and around it transports us from the hustle bustle of the city. Thankfully, our house is tucked at the end of a street so we don’t get to hear any honking or traffic.”

The Jains truly believe that the ‘Families that eat together, stay together’. “We are a joint family with one kitchen. We all make it a point to have atleast one meal in a day as a family. That is usually breakfast and sometimes dinner too,” adds Pragya.

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