Anurag Kanoria On How To Do Many Things At Once And Be Good At All Of Them

Anurag Kanoria, academic, art curator and creative force behind décor giant The Great Eastern Home, on how to do many things at once and be good at all of them. Aditi Gaitonde gets the blueprint.

- Aditi Gaitonde

How does one go from a degree in economics, a doctorate in English literature and a post-graduate diploma in aesthetics, to becoming the heart and brain behind India’s most luxurious décor store? Serendipitously, of course.

When Anurag Kanoria was renovating his home in Worli, Mumbai, in the ’90s, knowing his eye for design, his friends and family pressed him into designing furniture for them too. This personal project, that lasted two-and-a-half years, snowballed into an idea and eventually, a business. Twelve years on, he’s the director of two furniture brands—the premium The Great Eastern Home and the contemporary Ficus Fine Living—as well as Nine Fish, an art gallery. “But I still participate in academics,” Kanoria says. “I help guide NID (National Institute of Design) students with their dissertations and I’m a board member for the Indian Psychoanalytical Society. So, I lead dual lives,” he adds.