JAIVEER JOHAL'S CHENNAI HOME IS

FLANKED BY THE ADYAR RIVER ON ONE SIDE AND THE BAY OF BENGAL ΟΝ THE OTHER, AND ANCHORED IN A SEA OF ART AMIDST WHICH HE LIVES IN THIS BOLDLY DESIGNED ONEBEDROOM APARTMENT

- VAISHNAVI NAYEL TALAWADEKAR

Ask Jaiveer Johal how he came to be a collector and the Delhi-raised, Chennaibased entrepreneur instantly answers, "I've done it for as long as I can remember." He recalls, as a child, he'd squirrel away pretty things: crystal bowls, beautiful briefcases, silver plates. "If anything ever went missing, people always knew where to find it," he adds, quickly clarifying that said thieved objects "were limited to the confines of my own home". Before him, no one in the family-Johal's grandfather, Sardar Darbara Singh was a former chief minister of Punjab and his father was a scion of a successful conglomerate-devotedly amassed art. "They bought it to fit this wall or that. If there wasn't space for it, it was out of the question," he recalls of his parents and grandparents, who frequently purchased idiosyncratic pieces on their travels.