4 minute read

BRICK BY BRICK

Restoring The Rajbari

“There was something so hauntingly beautiful about it...”

Ajay Rawla, owner of The Rajbari

The sky turned golden, reflecting off the ripples, as we cruised down the Hooghly at a leisurely pace. I nibbled on a piece of smoky Kolkata cheese and sipped on a glass of white, while a young chap named Romeo strummed a guitar and sang the Dire Straits classic, Romeo and Juliet.

That subtle humour underscored my entire experience at The Rajbari↗ — because for Ajay Rawla, the owner of the property, it was love at first sight.

When Ajay first stumbled across its threshold by chance, The Rajbari was a shadow of itself. The roots had grown into the ruins, and the place was overrun by bats and other nocturnal creatures.

But Ajay was undeterred. When the villagers in Bawali told him that there was a lone, old man, the sole member of the Mondal family, who lived within the walls, he made his way back, determined to discover more.

It took seven years to restore the Rajbari. Twelve masons from Murshidabad were sent to train with the Aga Khan Foundation, which was restoring Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi at that time.

Lime, eggs and jaggery were used to create a traditional mortar. Each brick was hewn out of the earth by hand on the property itself. Yet, everyday there was a new challenge to be faced. (Watch the video↗ on the restoration)

“It was not as simple as it looked, because entire sections of the roof began to cave in,” Ajay recalls.

But he took each challenge in his stride. Since the roof had to be redone anyway, he laid ducting and pipes that the old structure lacked to facilitate modern amenities like air conditioning and running hot water.

A lot of it is going back to our roots and keeping it simple and not reinventing the wheel,” says Ajay.

In the end, he followed the original architectural lines of the property and he simply remained true to its original form.

Ajay eventually moved onto the site to oversee operations on a day-to-day basis, but his mission didn’t end at the structure itself.

That wasn’t all. Ajay had a keen aesthetic for vintage, and he scoured the countryside for old books, driftwood, lamp shades. Anything that could be upcycled or repurposed. Even the bumper of an old TATA truck — which became the bar at the pool deck! Throughout the property you’ll find a collection of eclectic, upcycled lamps designed by Ajay himself — it’s his personal passion.

I would drive out each morning to various sites where beautiful old homes were being torn down. It was a horrible feeling to see it come down, but there was beautiful old cast iron, beautiful Italian marble. We bought old railway sleepers and beams.

Everything from Burma teak to marble to wrought iron railings was repurposed and recycled. It was a blank canvas for Ajay’s creativity.

A passionate foodie, he brought in local housewives from the village to make traditional Bengali fare. In a tribute to Bawali’s roots, he also infused a touch of Chinese cuisine, as the first Hakka immigrants made landfall in Achipur, a village close by. Before long, the locals were stirring up martinis and margheritas, taking a page from Calcutta clubs like the Tolly. A magnificent piano that he managed to snag, set the tone. The library pays tribute to Satyajit Ray, who came here to seek inspiration for his scripts, and several amazing films including Chokher Bali have been shot on the property. The Rajbari employs around 80-100 people from the village.

“How can you build in the unexpected?” muses Ajay

From sundowners on a barge to re-inventing a dilapidated “naach” house (where dancers amused the zamindars in the old days, away from the eyes of their wives) as a breakfast nook, he reinvented not only the property but the entire destination.

And as you sit on the veranda overlooking the courtyard, the fragrance of dhoop (incense) lingers in the air. You float away to the songs of the Baul↗ mistrals, and the haunting sounds of a conch shell that echo off the old brick wall.

-All photos by The Rajbari

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