Island in a Green Ocean
ROOPA GREWAL
Roopa Grewal makes it clear that this is the place where she dreams. Even with eyes opened. “It is never about the beams and the concrete… We took ages to build this house. There was never any hurry because it was important that everything about the place turns out right. After all, this is where I can express my inner most feelings. Be myself. That is why you see that this huge place about lots of open spaces. I seriously believe that when the spaces are wide, positive energy flows ceaselessly,” she says.
Grewal and her husband Sonam’s house in Sector 9, Chandigarh may be huge but it is intimate nevertheless. “That is because we have used a lot of warm colours inside. The art work you see on the walls also ensures the same,” she adds.
Insisting that for her, home means an indispensable emotional anchor, Grewal elaborates, “This place promises me the familiar space of mind and comforts me, makes me feel secure. This is where I belong. This is where I want to come back to.”
One sweeping look across the rooms and you can see small and interesting titbits. “They all have been bought from the numerous trips abroad. It is not about filling the house with expensive stuff, but about ornamenting it with things that appeal to you aesthetically,” Grewal, who conceived Kinder Pillar, a junior pre-school that has branches in India and abroad, says.
Point out towards the huge Buddha brass statues at various corners in the house, and Grewal flashes a smile and says, “I guess it is to do with precipitating a certain peace and relaxation around. Don’t you feel it? It may also have to do with the fact that I have been diligently practicing yoga for the past 10 years now.”
Ask her about why their architect Sandeep Kaur has given them a grand space and Roopa asserts, “As I told you before, it is not about the vastness. This place is not to prove a point, but for passion for what one belives in. And that may translate into a small nazar that we bought from Turkey recently.”
Point to the huge garden and Grewal says, “We had to cut down a few trees as the house looked like it was in the middle of a forest! You have to see it in the summers. One can only see flowers,” she says.
STRIKING FEATURES ❍ Brilliant use of space ❍ Excellent art work ❍ Subtle but stylish ❍ Huge lawns ❍ Ultra-modern furniture ❍ Spellbinding upholstery ❍ Designer furniture