On The Lake

In business scion and art patron Pooja Singhal’s family home in Udaipur, Mumbai-based interior designer Rajiv Saini delicately introduced contemporaneous elements to balance the old and the new while preserving the artisanal elements and the history of the grand structure

- Abhilasha Ojha

There’s curation and then there’s finesse in curation. In Pooja Singhal’s breezy home in Udaipur, where she lives with her family—parents, two siblings, her niece and nephew—it’s the flourish with which art is placed that gives this abode’s curatorial syntax its distinctive style. It’s a home that celebrates the union of the old and new with immense sensibility—and sensitivity— and that’s a rarity. Over 100 years old, this home, originally a Rajput thikana, resonates, as Pooja explains, with the philosophy that the family stands for: “Never discard the old; the old is where you began, the new is where you are.”

EYE FOR BUSINESS

Interestingly, the ethos of her home is reflected in Pooja’s businesses, too. The third generation of one of India’s most illustrious families (her grandfather PP Singhal started Mewar Oil & General Mills in Udaipur, which was later renamed PI Industries), Pooja has effectively combined her philanthropic contributions in the revival of art and craft with a sharp business acumen. Through Pichvai Tradition & Beyond, which she started in 2009, Pooja has not just given a facelift to the art form, but also ensured its resurrection. While her mother was already a patron of sorts in Udaipur to some of these artists, Pooja built her own atelier, changed the size, scale and, sometimes, the medium to revive this art form for people living in smaller apartments.