A lawyer's retreat

Dave, who quit the legal profession last month, tells Bhavini Mishra and Veenu Sandhu what makes him a 'permanent pessimist'

- ILLUSTRATION: BINAY SINHA

In the leafy lanes of Golf Links, one of New Delhi's most coveted addresses, the calm is almost disarming. Just a short stroll from Khan Market - often ranked Asia's most expensive retail destination - lies the home of senior advocate Dushyant Dave, whom we are meeting for lunch.

There is a reason we're here rather than at a restaurant: Dave prefers to eat at home, a habit he has largely maintained through a long and successful legal career. All the more surprising, then, when last month he sent a short WhatsApp message to Bar and Bench and Live Law announcing that he was quitting the profession - with immediate effect.

Was it a spur-of-the-moment decision, we wonder as we follow a cobbled pathway flanked by trees and shrubs into a courtyard with rich, dark wooden panels and dense foliage. On one side of it is a sculpture that recalls Rodin's The Thinker. But unlike the famed figure lost in introspection, this one gazes outward, contemplative, yet watchful. Much like Dave himself, it balances thought and leisure. In one corner of the courtyard is his office, barely 3 kilometres from the Supreme Court, where he practised for decades. Across it is his home.

Inside, a tastefully done up waiting area that leads into the living room reflects the man - cerebral and grounded. A tall bookshelf dominates one wall, stacked with legal tomes and literary works. Among them: a precarious Jenga tower, a copy of William Dalrymple's The Golden Road, and a child's bold, brushy artwork, possibly by one of Dave's four grand-children, whose framed faces beam from a side table in the living room.

Everywhere one looks, there are artworks, both by modern masters like SH Raza and contemporary artists such as Paresh Maity, anchoring the space in colour and memory.