Time capsule

With 200-year-old serveware, antique pots and authentic Naga panels, Tahir Sultan’s concept decor store in Jaipur is a nod to the subcontinent’s rich artisanal legacy, finds VAISHNAVI NAYEL TALAWADEKAR. Photographed by REMA CHAUDHARY

About 10 minutes from Jaipur’s City Palace is a store that mirrors it in spirit. Naga panels emblazon the walls, hand-thrown crockery occupies the shelves and 350-year-old earthen pots, originally used on trade routes, whisper stories of fallen fiefdoms. For a place that is only a few months old, Makaan seems frozen in time, as if someone bottled up its parts centuries ago and preserved them for posterity.

For designer and chef Tahir Sultan, the self-designed store was born serendipitously during the lockdown of 2020 along with a series of other life changes: a new country, new ventures and new philanthropic endeavours, to name a few. And yet, none of these were part of the plan. I happened to be in India, more specifically Jaipur, when the lockdown was imposed and Tjust took a liking to the city,” confesses the half-Kuwaiti, half Indian entrepreneur. I also had access to all this amazing stuff that was not being stocked anywhere at the time.”