Art and soul: Entrepreneur-aesthete Vina Mody leaves behind a legacy for Indian craftsmen

Mody’s Operandi: Where the Indian karigar was king. File pic

The name Vina is actually pronounced as 'Vaina' (to rhyme with Diana), this reporter learnt on a condolence call to Vina Mody's niece, Feroza Mody. Vina passed away peacefully on Monday night at Feroza's Carmichael Road residence. At 96, Vina, architect and entrepreneur-founder of one of Mumbai's first lifestyle stores, Contemporary Arts & Crafts (CAC) leaves behind a legacy, marked by love for Indian crafts.

The store

It is a path Feroza, who is now solely in charge of CAC, is determined to continue. "The most visible window for her life's philosophy is the CAC store," said her niece, who added that the brick ‘n' mortar store had its birth at Fort, then moved to Nepean Sea Road, and then Fort, before shuttering and moving to the virtual world. "We are online now, like so many businesses in the outbreak," said Feroza, adding, "maybe, that is the way to go in the future too."

The online outpost too continues to showcase Vina's passion for Indian crafts and craftsmen. She practised ‘desi chic' long before it became trendy on the city's social circuit, and caring for the Indian karigar became an uber cool leitmotif in the ‘keeping home grown crafts alive' story, mouthed between chips ‘n' dips at parties.

A visionary

"In that way certainly, she was a woman ahead of her time," said Feroza about her trailblazing aunt, whose actual name was Lavina, but was more commonly known as Vina. A trained architect, Vina was the American wife of late Parliamentarian and Mumbai architect Piloo Mody. Piloo, one of the founding members of the Swantantra party, was a passionate advocate of liberalism.

Writer Meher Marfatia described Vina as "inspiring". Marfatia added, "It is just so remarkable how she made this country her home, with a closer understanding of its heritage, and not to forget its politics too, than so many born Indians. It was thanks to her that so many unsung karigars from every state got due recognition."

Marketing mantra

Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spouting the rousing pandemic punchline of ‘Make in India' and using the traditional ‘gamcha' as a mask, catapulting it into style's big league, is incredible marketing. When Vina scoured the country and sourced products in the 1960s, from Indian craftsmen, such hard sell spiel was absent, in any corner leave alone from a slick PM, though some politicians only through their dressing did inadvertently promote Indian craft. The Nehru jacket is one enduring example.

"Yet, with her dedication and an unerring eye for what sold along with the stylish, she was successful," said Feroza. Once more indicative of her prescient mind, ‘farm to table' has become a culinary catchphrase now, while 50 years earlier, "Vina had already made it from ‘craft to table', when it came to products like tableware and home décor," said Feroza.

Vina's niece stated how her aunt's penchant for the stylish spilled over in the personal space. "At my home too, she would give me ideas about where to place certain stuff, why a piece is better suited to a different corner from the one I placed it, and she was right. Right till the end, she liked to be very busy. She would tell us, give me something to do and was always creating, sewing, sticking something together."

Leaving behind

One of the ways though that the world has moved ahead is that it is now much more open and global. "Products with a with a typical Indian design or aesthetic, may not have been made in India, they could have been made in Thailand or Sri Lanka for example. The emphasis on this being made or getting it only from an Indian karigar is a limitation in these times. Yet, it was Vina's love for the craftsmen and women of the country that she always put people over profits. I remember if a karigar was asked why a product was unfinished after a deadline had elapsed, and he would say he was handicapped as there no electricity in his village, she would not hold the karigar to it," recalled Feroza. That mix of compassion and the commercial is a cocktail you do not find easily at the business bar today.

"Vina has forged the way, and I am going to try my hardest to live up to those ideals," finished her niece. With desi chic now in high demand, in India's hinterland where rural folk create for the urban market, the spirit of Vina Mody lives on like the pleasing scent of earth after rain.