WELCOME TO THE AMINS BARODA HOME

THE CITY OF BARODA-NOW CALLED VADODARA IS INTRICATELY  LINKED TO THE HISTORY OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART IN INDIA. REFLECTING THIS JOURNEY IS MALIKA AND CHIRAYU AMIN'S ANCESTRAL HOME AND THEIR INCREDIBLE COLLECTION OF ART.

- GAYATRI RANGACHARI SHAH

Since she bought her first painting-an NS Bendre at the age of 21, Malika Amin, the well-known art patron, philanthropist and businesswoman, has acquired an incredible museum-worthy collection housed across her various homes, but pride of place goes to the family abode in Baroda (Vadodara), Gujarat. Built over 60 years ago by the visionary architect Anup Kothari, who passed away recently, and who built a number of significant buildings across India in the mid-to-late 20th century, the five-acre home feels more like a resort than a city residence. Birds chirp, vines tumble down over windows, a water body gurgles in the distance and a large swimming pool beckons.

Over the past four decades, Malika has amassed a staggering number of paintings and sculptures by some of India's most significant modern and contemporary artists, a veritable roll call of artistry-including Bendre, Jamini Roy, MF Husain, FN Souza, Bhupen Khakhar, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Krishen Khanna, Manjit Bawa, Atul Dodiya, Nalini Malani, Dhruva Mistry, Manu Parekh, Madhvi Parekh, Paris Viswanathan, Rekha Rodwittiya, Rini Dhumal, KS Radhakrishnan, Tanya Goel and others. "I was always interested in art and in my younger days I would visit the Fine Arts Faculty (at the University of Baroda)," Malika says, in her soft-spoken way. A Mumbai native, when she married Chirayu Amin, the scion of the Alembic Group, and moved to Baroda, she pursued her interest as she now lived in a city that historically nurtured art from the early 20th century by its great visionary ruler Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad.