MY SPACE:PRIYANKA RAJA

Her Kolkata home is an intimate showcase of her art and aesthetics. And there could be none better than actor and author Lisa Ray to introduce Raja‘s world to us

I ’ve always sought out the company of dynamic and strong women; women who are mythical in their role of illuminating a powerful roadmap to help us navigate our growth and choices, as well as teach us how to tend to the heart fire of home and beauty in the world. Priyanka Raja is one of these women. She’s a woman I want to be. Let me explain.

I first heard about Experimenter, the critically acclaimed contemporary art gallery in Kolkata (which has become synonymous with refined, avant garde programming) from a Hong Kong-based friend who grew up with the art connoisseur couple-founders, Prateek and Priyanka.

“You’ll absolutely love Priyanka,” he exhorted through bites of char siu and barbecued duck. “You must meet her,” he said. I nodded slyly, because I was already conspiring to make sure our paths crossed.

I’ve been passionate about art for as long as I can remember, perhaps a response to the middle-class pragmatism of my mother, who in my childhood was a sort of productivity Baptist. Time spent gazing at canvases or a screen and not using your hands was sacrilege. Perhaps this also contributed to the gravitational pull towards my father’s Bengali heritage, which places art and literature at the apex of human achievement.