Brick by brick

After her marriage ended, Manssi Vedhya Karambelkar did not know who she was anymore. She confides in SAACHI GUPTA that building a house over 14 months helped her slowly rebuild herself too.

- SAACHI GUPTA

When Manssi Vedhya Karambelkar decided to separate from her husband, the first people she told were her architects and interior designers. It was the middle of the first lockdown, and the couple had spent months designing their Bengaluru home they would live in together. Construction was already underway, and she was stuck in one house due to the lockdown, but I knew in my heart that it was going to happen," Karambelkar confesses. "I called a meeting and told them, 'I don't want this house to be his. I think we need to redesign.' Nobody skipped a beat before saying, 'Let's do it. Let's make this feel like your home."

The process that followed was as gruelling as it was fulfilling. "We went through so many iterations because I didn't know who I was anymore," shares the 44-year-old. "When I was asked about what I would like, my mind would go blank." Eventually, it was her best friend, a former architect, who came to the rescue when she told her that the kitchen should be the nucleus of her home. "It suddenly hit me that all our conversations took place around the dining table because it's where I felt most comfortable. My friend suggested I design the house outwardly from there." Karambelkar didn't even know that was possible. "I thought you designed the house first and then got a dining table.