At 8 am, dressed in trousers and elegant handmade kurtas, she would be at her desk in her large, well-appointed second floor office in the Heritage Wing of The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai. Elisabetha Kerkar | Photo Credit: Special ArrangementIndian at heartSwiss by birth — Elisabetha met and married Ajit Kerkar in the mid-50s, when she was an art student in London — she flawlessly merged her European sensibility with the Indian aesthetic. “When DS Reddy was the Managing Director at the Taj Mahal Palace, she had gifted him a beautiful oil on canvas of sunflowers. Other paintings from the collection hang at the Taj Mahal in Delhi, Taj Bengal in Kolkata or the Taj West End in Bengaluru. | Photo Credit: Special ArrangementLocally-sourced life-size wooden statues at the Taj Bengal | Photo Credit: Suresh CordoHandmade marble chairs with pietra dura detailing at The Chambers, Taj Mahal Delhi | Photo Credit: Suresh Cordo

Source: The Hindu September 30, 2020 09:22 UTC