PRITI PRATAP SINGH

PRINCESS OF THE ERSTWHILE KINGDOM OF KUCHAMAN AND A TRUE CONNOISSEUR OF TEXTILES, SHE OPENS THE DOORS TO HER DELHI HOME, WHERE MEMORIES AND HISTORIES INTERTWINE, AND SHE LIVES SURROUNDED BY ROYAL HEIRLOOMS AS WELL AS NEW PIECES TASTEFULLY CRAFTED UNDER HER EXACTING EYE.

-  SUNIL SETHI

In a leafy 1950s neighbourhood of garden bungalows set in symmetrical squares adjoining the Delhi zoo, Priti Pratap Singh's home retains its original whitewashed form. But inside its creaky iron gate is a realm of fantasy, a visionary creation of the unfamiliar inside the familiar. When she first inherited the house as a young mother in the 1970S, she deemed the conventional front lawn "too boring" and set about ripping it apart to transform it into an artful magic wilderness.

A benign granite Nandi sits centre stage, between red sandstone paving and parterres of luxuriant foliage, bisected by a narrow channel with water bubbling from stone spheres. The veranda is shaded by a vine-laden bamboo scaffolding, dense with grape clusters. With the sound and sight of the city thus blotted, one could be anywhere - a corner of Tuscany perhaps or a secluded zenana garden?-except in the heart of a teeming metropolis.

The interiors with their soaring 16-foot-high ceilings effortlessly intensify the theme and panoply of royal Rajasthan, most notably in a dazzling display of antique textiles-an embroidered covering for an elephant's howdah on one wall, a fine block-printed kalamkari on another, and a painted Nathdwara pichhwai above the fireplace. Amid the gleaming brass and silver are elaborate embellishments of Priti's own handiwork: A corner of the living room is converted into a tented baithak (lounge area) in saffron silk framed in carved architraves from haveli doors and, in her bedroom, plain cupboards are covered in crewel-embroidered aqua silk.