"We wanted the studio before the baby", she said, while sharing the story of their journey together. It began in 2008, when her parents arranged her marriage to an artist who had by then not only found his feet - after training in Santiniketan and Baroda, and working in Delhi - but also made a mark with designing an unusual Durga Puja pandal with ceramic idols and decoration.
She came very far from the world of art. Growing up in Kakinara, she was eager to experience life beyond its confines, and fought with her father to seek education outside it, studying English Literature in Hoogly Mohsin College and then Bardhaman University. The match came when she had started teaching herself. And in no time, she found herself dreaming his dream of having a studio of his own.
Studio Calyx happened in 2010, expanding with time. It now stands on a 20-acre property, a two-storey house built slowly around and above it. The short driveway leading to the house bifurcates a garden, each side of it fecund with trees bearing flowers, fruit and vegetables. This is her studio, where she experiments with seeds – the latest being orchids from Kashmir, brought after an unforgettable fortnight there this summer.
She takes equal pride in showing the garden and the studio, expanded and renovated since my last visit. To accommodate more life – more plants to grow, more students/people to come and intern/workshop. And more space to roam around for the three most important beings in their lives -- their 8-year-old twins and a quiet labrador.
The children away in school, the dog monopolizes her attention, shadowing her everywhere, and napping every chance she gets. Two students from Kala Bhavan, interning at the moment, wait for the artist to return from his day-job (in the same school that the children study). His workspace is a neat affair, as is everything else in the house. The credit, it seems, goes to him. The life built together, however, owes its stability to her – who left her career after the pandemic, after a transformative phase involving multiple medical challenges in the family. Her mother lives with her now. But it's clear to all who nurtures everyone at Calyx.
While seeing me off, she put a bunch of 'gandhoraj lebu' from her garden in my bag, and mentioned the Epilogue she will be writing for a book that celebrates her husband's latest achievement in ceramic art. I look forward to enjoying the fragrance and zest of her garden's fresh yield, and to reading the book when it's out!