"David Lean, the director of A Passage to India gave me those,” mentions businesswoman Priya Mascarenhas about the three iron lamps hanging from the ceiling of her foyer. She explains, “He was a friend and when they were shooting the film in Bengaluru, they had collected props from all over the city’s antique stores.” This is a recurring theme as we look around her 150-year-old heritage home nestled at the very end of Cookson Road – every object decorating her walls and spread across all available surfaces has a story and a place attached to it.
Since Priya and her late husband, businessman Mohan Mascarenhas, moved into the family home, in 1973, they’ve kept the structure intact in its historic charm. “He and I had this vision that we should make the house a typical old Bangalore home so we kept everything and saw to it that its features didn’t change. That was a hell of a challenge. The house has its original monkey tops, high ceilings and stained glass too but we’ve worked on strengthening its bones – the walls, the beams.” She also points out the intricate designs decorating the sloped ceiling high above us, as Italian tiles from the time the house was built. The ceiling fans too, are likely from that period and still kicking. The furniture, heavy and dark, adds to the weight of the space, many inherited from both sides of the family – antique bedsteads, tables and a British-era Piano are placed throughout. These efforts towards preserving the home’s character earned the Mascarenhas’ the INTACH Heritage Award in 2016.
As the globe-trotting couple travelled the world, they picked up unique curios from each of the countries they visited before Mohan passed away a year and a half ago. Amid the Catholic icons collected in Rome and Eastern Europe, statues of Buddha from East Asia, masks from Africa and art from all over, a clear preoccupation emerges – blue plates, her total collection over 400 strong. Against the cream-yellow walls, the ‘blue looks royal’ says Mascarenhas, adding, “They are from various places – Amsterdam and all over Europe, China, the newest are from my granddaughter brought from Turkey.” Arranged among a cluster of blue plates in a corner table are other objects Priya is repeatedly drawn to – figurines of The Pieta and right behind them, two statues of the Buddha.
Beyond the large main hall is a hallway where you can still feel the chill of Kadapa stone underfoot, leading into a section of the house that used to be the colonial ‘servants’ quarters’ but is now a massage room, a linen room, and a second kitchen (apart from the one connecting the main hall and stone hallway). “The kitchen at the back (where we now cook fish) used to be the butler’s kitchen. The kitchen we use daily, was once the pantry – where the butlers used to warm up the food before serving their British mem-sahebs,” explains Priya.
The biggest change from the 19th century house is the bathroom, updated to meet current needs but still very even handed with modification. “We upgraded the bathroom only because the had old cisterns which are not user-friendly, and replaced the tiles with Spanish tiles to keep the colonial look.”
How does your garden grow?
Situated amid a row of newer, multi-storey houses, Silverend is the very picture of an old Bangalore home and a reminder of why this town came to be known as The Garden City – surrounded by half an acre of plants Priya has lovingly cultivated over 53 years. “I consider the garden the soul of Silverend,” she says, recalling, “Before us, this was a cacti and rose garden, very much in my husband’s aunt’s style. But the thing about roses is they bloom and dry up – I did not like that, I wanted flowers that bloom all year round so I gravitate to petunias, heliconias, different types ixoras, lots of ferns, monsteras, chrysanthemums and allamandas of different types.”
Maintained entirely by a rainwater harvesting system, the half acre is home to 500 species of plants.
A small bridge and a mechanical
waterfall emerges like a surprise at its heart. The garden is even more decorated than the house as Priya says with pride, “It has won the outstanding ornamental garden award for 47 years straight.” But as recent times have been a period of withdrawal for Priya, she has given up both travel and entering her garden in competitions.
Now, her house is a vessel for all the memories gathered with children, grandchildren and few visitors allowed a look inside. “From each place I’ve been, I’ve brought something back so now, I can sit down and tell my grandchildren the story of our shared life – memories of our travels from Egypt, the Middle East, Russia, China, Japan – I’ve been all around the world at least twice over,” she says.