The First One: Rajiv Majumdar

  

                        "Un-reroute the rivers, let the damned water be,
                         Theres some people down the way that's thirsty, 
                         so let the liquid spirit free..." - Liquid Spirit by Gregory Porter 

 

                            

I could not have picked a tougher first guest. He is prolific in his interests, dogged in all his pursuits, obsessive to the last detail, and restless beyond reason. 

Meet Rajiv Majumdar, an award-winning architect, design enthusiast, coffee connoisseur, cafe owner, electronic music maker, audio aficionado, food nerd, photographer, techno music freak and the bearer-of-information-on-everything. Basically, the biggest geek I know. We had a freewheeling chat for about 4-5 hours over coffee, chai, and flaky, homemade parathas. How in the world does one capture all that in a few words and pictures? Tough first guest, I told you. 

But wait. Let's take this slowly. Break it down a bit. For the sake of my own brain. And I hope you have some time. 

Since we have to start somewhere, let's start with Rajiv's core work. He runs an award winning architecture firm along with two other partners called Praxis, in Bangalore. Over 25 years, they have created some stunning buildings, homes and hotels. When I asked him what drew him to architecture, he guffawed and said that he had given up on studying when someone randomly told him to pick architecture. So he did. 

He flunked 3 subjects in his first term. He didn't know how to study, he says. And then kicked in, what I now know as quintessential Rajivness- he burrowed himself into those 3 subjects and topped them all. Ego might have played a small role, but I suspect the bigger reason was his incessant thirst for knowledge. In his own words, "In trying to understand something that I don't, I get sucked in." And how.  

Let's take coffee, for example. 10 years ago, he was a Nescafe-with-extra-sugar-and-milk kinda guy. Today he owns Nerlu- a boutique coffee shop in Bangalore serving some of the finest speciality brews from across the country. He believes Indian coffee isn't getting the love it deserves, and is determined to change that.  His overarching ambition is to create an Indian coffee almanac of roasters from all over the country. Wait, what? From Nescafe to Nerlu- how?! Here's how.

"I remember the day, the weather, where I was, who I was meeting..." Still talking about coffee. "I was waiting at Borough market in London, when I happened to walk to Monmouth coffee roasters. I had no idea what to order. I didn't even know the difference between any of the coffees on the menu. So I randomly asked for a macchiato. And then ran around the coffee shop looking for sugar. Who has coffee without sugar?! Decided to gulp it without the sweetness, and it was like a big fat smack on the face. I had goosebumps, my body was on fire, it was like I'd had liquid heroin! (His hair stood on end even while he was describing this moment!). I have never experienced anything like that again. And I have just been chasing that feeling ever since."

That was 10 years ago. After introducing nearly all his friends to the joys of speciality coffee, when a friend called him asking why aren't we setting up a coffee shop already, he jumped in feet first and set up Nerlu cafe with Shibani. She has magic fingers with food. But more on her, on another day. 

If you walk into Nerlu cafe, you just might find Rajiv behind the counter, regaling the joys of a new brew to a customer, at times proceeding to make it himself. Or tasting the latest coffees on the menu. Or in the midst of an intense conversation with a barista, I can't even try and communicate his technical knowledge on coffee, so I won't go there. And I didn't dare tell him that I am a Bru drinker, he would have chewed my head off. But he made me fall a little in love with coffee. His passion is infectious.

The beautifully designed cafe took me back to his core expertise- architecture. When talking about his creative process and the subject of aesthetics. he began by making a sharp distinction between an artist and a designer. Being an artist he says is liberating, freeing, but you are forced to create your own context for everything you do. So there is self-examination and your critical thinking skills, required to evaluate your own work, have to be very good. As a designer, he sees himself fundamentally as a problem solver. And the problem sets the context. 

"I leave my ego at the door, shut up and listen to the client. My job is to hone into the problem, and we solve the problem through an elaborate, iterative process. The mark of a good solution he says, is one that multiple people could have arrived at eventually. And the aesthetic just follows."

 

This I found extremely interesting. One, it wasn't about the need to stamp a design with your style. It was quite simply, solving a problem. Two, the process is logical, not created on a whim or a mood. And three, the solution is arrived at through discussion, through collaboration, through inclusivity. He summed it up best when he said,

"Design should be sympathetic, not competitive."

Lovely. 

His pet peeve is an idea, that well, remains an idea. He believes that ideas by themselves have zero relevance apart from giving you some kind of hedonistic pleasure. And he has no time for that. 

What he does have time for are all his other pursuits, some active and some passive. Over the years, the running joke has been that every time I met him, he had a new obsession. This one time it was cooking, so he bought every known paraphernalia required to cook a kickass meal, including three sous vide machines. A friend introduced him to techno music and now his entire living room looks like a giant electronic music production studio. He decided to take up photography to shoot his own projects and that resulted in a mini studio at home, and a collection of vintage cameras. The list is endless. 

What was the common link? There are a million things in the world that one doesn't understand. Chasing each one of them would drive anyone batty, I thought. Why does he pick what he does? He thought for a second, and said, "It has to have a scientific/technical component. The joy is in wading into the weeds of everything, and only when there is a system to be unlocked, that it becomes interesting." A by-product to being interested in everything, is that he is a generalist, able to hold interesting conversations that go beyond just a cursory examination of the subject. Talking to him about anything, if you are listening carefully, is akin to a masterclass on the subject. My words, not his. 

Our chat meandered into the underlying restlessness that is his creative fuel. He believes, that all creative people are broken in some way, and the brain is trying to find a resolution. But he is not interested in solving that brokenness through psychological or esoteric means. Instead, he learns and he creates. He delves deeper into a subject, more than anyone I know. And does it again and again. With the same rigour. 

"My objective is not to relax, it is to shove more energy into my life, with a healthy dose of laziness." 

No self- doubt? No fear of judgement? No second guessing. None. As a child, he was a voracious torch-under-blanket reader and he believed he was a good writer. Whether he was or not is irrelevant, what is important is that he believed he was. That was all the confidence he needed. It gave him a sense of self that has seen him through all the frailties of a creative life, and allowed him to extrapolate across multiple disciplines. He says, 

"When I move from I know everything to I know nothing, everything just becomes so much more interesting." 

I asked him what helps create that shift. Life, and a couple of failed relationships, he grinned. 

There is so much more I wanted to talk to him about- his love of poetry, his travelogues, I forgot to ask him to sing and play the guitar, and he still has to cook me a meal, using all that equipment that I can't even pronounce the names of. But Rajiv requires another session. And I have no doubt that by then, he would've added 3 more projects to the list. 

Rajiv is accomplished in so many ways that it is hard to put him in any kind of box. What I found most interesting is the scientific, logical underpinning to all that he creates. There is deep intelligence, no doubt, but to me it is his natural generosity, uncompromising integrity and the good humour he does it all with, that defines his creative energy, and makes Rajiv who he is. Authenticity is the not-so-secret mantra. And it's not what he creates but how he does it, that makes all the difference. 

"Create your own experiences, your own process. Don't worry about people's judgements. I have found that the more stuff you put out there, the more people appreciate it. They appreciate what you have to add to the entropy of the universe. Once you have created what you want to, share freely and enjoy the process." Wise words, indeed. 

I asked him which song he would choose as the soundtrack of his life. 

Liquid spirit by Gregory Porter, remixed by Claptone. Have a hint of a listen here:

We talked a-lot. He made coffee. I clicked a few. We ate. We laughed. I took notes. And I came back feeling in awe. It's a really nice feeling to have.  

Check out Praxis here: 

https://www.facebook.com/praxisinc/

https://www.instagram.com/praxis_inc/

And if you are in Bangalore, don't miss a cuppa at:

https://www.instagram.com/nerlucafe/