The best kind of designer is an invisible force

I am a bit of a pessimist when it comes to Indian interior design.

- MANJU SARA RAJAN

I am a bit of a pessimist when it comes to Indian interior design. The surfeit of design awards, media, influencers and coverage would suggest that I should feel otherwise. We've never been more obsessed with decor than we are now. And we've never had more choices to make. But in 20 years we'll look back at this phase and be hard-pressed to find distinct voices that have made a defining contextual contribution.

An endless spectrum of choice, resources and ideas has conspired to create a design business that is largely interested in feeding itself, the beast gorging on a buffet of objects. It creates homes and spaces that function as a museum of things, rather than memory and interests. When everyone thinks they're distinct, but no one really is, because they're shopping at the same fairs, looking at the same design feeds and choosing things as fantasies.

When designers create spaces to showcase themselves rather than their clients, it creates a monoculture of set design. One luxe-looking fit-out resembles the other, each one looking like it could be anywhere and everywhere, from Nairobi to Dubai to New Delhi.

The best spaces ripen with age, they reflect ideologies, hobbies, reading obsessions. The best homes develop layers that tell the stories of the people who live in them. As the old Asian Paints advertisement poetically surmised: har ghar kuch kehta hain, andar kaun rehta hai. What it shouldn't talk about is the idiom of your interior designer. Because the best kind of design and designer is an invisible force that has quietly allowed a client's life to speak.