Spaces Vol 1 Is 6

Weise, was the architect who designed
the Hotel de l’Annapurna.
Talking about fathers and such, it is
interesting to know that Sonia’s maternal
great grandfather Samuel Evans Stokes,
a Quaker from Pennsylvania, introduced
apple trees in Shimla in 1903, and thereby
made Himanchal Pradesh into one of
the biggest apple producing states in
India. Besides being a social worker, he
She finished her B.F.A in 1991 and
surprisingly, did not start any work
professionally for almost five years. “I
got married,” she laughs. “And then my
daughter was born, so I became pretty
busy at home.” But destiny was only
waiting to play its part. In 1995, the wellknown
architect, Shiban Ganju, requested
her to be his interior design consultant
for two residential projects - that of
industrial biggies, Khaitan and Goenkaboth
in New Delhi. “You can imagine, I
must have been blessed to have had such
distinguished clients for my first
professional works.” From then on it has
been a busy ride, and her firm, Sonia
Gupta and Associates, went on to do a
lot of prestigious projects including,
also joined Gandhi in the freedom
struggle and such was his stature in preindependent
India that his life’s story
entitled the publication of a book called
‘An American in Khadi’. How fitting also
that Sonia was born on the 15 th of
August- India’s Independence Day. Sonia
reveals, “Actually my real name is
Vandana”. Supposedly, during the five
years of her B.F.A. Interior Design and
Art Education in the University of
Georgia, USA, people found it difficult
to pronounce her name. So she began
using her nickname, Sonia. She has also
done a one-year Advertising and Applied
Arts from College of Art, New Delhi.
offices of PSA Legal Eagles in Delhi and
New York, a NRI residence in New York,
the Bandhavgarh Jungle Lodge, and the
Opus in Delhi. However, with a growing
list of Kathmandu projects including the
Hotel de l’Annapurna and residences of
HRH Princess Helen Shah and Kapil
S.J.B. Rana, it does look like Sonia might
well be as busy here. Half jokingly, she
says, “I would love to build a cottage for
myself in Kathmandu, but I hear land
prices are over the roof!” She has built a
small cottage recently in Shimla, which
she visits occasionally.
Sonia has had an exhibition of her
computer graphics at the Guggenheim
Museum in New York and another at
the Lyndon Art Centre in Georgia. She
was also a recipient of the Georgia Rotary
Scholarship. And besides ranking 27 th in
the All India Order of Merit in the Class
XII Board Exams, Sonia also topped the
State of Delhi in Art. She describes her
Above & left: Two of Sonia’s recent
works – Vineyard in Baber Mahal
Revisited and Jeans Café in Basantpur
specialization as Interior Architecture and
believes that it would be proper and in
the scheme of things if architects would
work alongside interior designers as
consultants. From her experience, Sonia
believes that it is very important to be
professional in dealings with clients but
rues the fact that there are still many who
do not understand the time and effort
an interior designer has put in to arrive
at a point of mutual satisfaction. Sonia
says she is quite selective when accepting
assignments and likes to have her interest
aroused by challenging projects in which
she is allowed a free hand to unleash her
latent creativity. She says, “Working here
has been a pleasure but it has been
difficult as well.” Elaborating further, she
adds, “Sometimes it is impossible to get
the kind of materials I need and even
when available, not in the requisite
amounts. I do wish concerned importers
would consult interior designers when
ordering so that they have adequate
stocks of required and in-vogue
materials. This would make our task so
much easier and prevent unnecessary
delays in the finishing of projects.” S
68 SEP-OCT 2005 SPACES