Page 61 - MASALA Vol 8 Issue 6 June-July 2017

The temple is the heart of the home The heavy studded main entrance with brass leaf
door handles
Modern homes have become a tad predictable, but here is a house
designed for prayer by a housewife who shared cut outs from
magazines with her designer and ended up with a home entirely in
line with her vision. “I couldn’t be happier,” Kanika Phawa tells us.
“Everything was exactly how I wanted it.”
Fashioned after its pagoda as it is, the now five-year-old residence
calls out to us to begin the house tour not with the entrance, but
with its temple — the heart of this home. “I do a lot of praying
here,” says Kanika, showing us her first-floor temple.

It’s like stepping into a mini palace, but there is nothing mini about
the height of it. The energy is heavy but love-filled and comforting.
Stretching up to the full height of a magnificent three-storey dark
wood pagoda, this is a very serious praying space indeed. The
walls are clad in a gold leaf-look wallpaper, but the main event
is the breathtaking chandelier of hundreds of brass silver and As much respect has been given to the outside as the inside
gold-tipped leaves, reminiscent of a tree resplendent in autumnal
colours. The chandelier was ordered from Chiang Mai and it is hard
to think of anything else that could have fit the space so perfectly.

The fitted low wooden wall-to-wall cupboard, below a glorious
trapezoid-shaped window, acts as a presentation space for the
many idols. On the marble floor itself, in a custom-made bath,
Kanika performs daily washing rituals on Shivling, representing
Lord Shiva, and Shaligram, while up on the wall is a large painting of
her guru Bramleen Achaiya Maha — Bhramleen Mahamandleshwar
Acharya Swami Lokeshanand Giri.
The Phawa family

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