Ask the average person what their favourite things are, and they will stop to think before answering. Not so Pushpanjali Sharma, a multitalented entrepreneur from a well-known business family, the owners of Baidyanath ayurvedics. Having worked in FMCG, Pepsi and even luxury goods abroad, she now owns Pivotul, a company which offers strategic advice to brands entering India, including Burberry, Bentley and Lamborghini. Like her work experience, Sharma’s favourite things are dizzyingly varied.
- “A painting which my mother gifted me. It’s by Jamini Roy.” The painting shows dancers: “When I was a kid I did Kathak dancing, and since then I’ve been very attracted to it.”
- “A pair of earrings from my grandmother, the last gift she gave me.” They are diamond and emerald set in white metal. “I love pieces with an old-world sensibility to them.” She says she can wear them with Indian as well as Western clothes.
- “My lucky shoes — a pair of brown North Star trekking shoes which I’ve had since my school days, completely dilapidated and disgusting-looking! Even though I trek a lot I’m not a hardcore extreme trekker,” she says, to explain why the shoes survive.
- Ritual gear, including a dupatta to cover her head, given to her by her mother; old prayer thalis; a photo of Durga and a silver shivling — “When I moved to America I took that shivling with me.”
- “Horses — I wish!” says Sharma, who loves riding. “No, I don’t own any for now. That’s a plan for the future.” But riding boots: “I have one pair that has survived, in incredible leather, that I got made by a craftsman in San Francisco. They’re not very pretty but they are very comfortable. They were about $2,500, and I’m talking about 20 years ago.”
- “My favourite car I don’t own any more — a Lexus RX300. It was the first time I bought myself a nice car, in the States. At the moment my BMW 325i is what I’m attached to.” She also owns a Mercedes SLK.
- “Two Yorkshire terriers, Bentley and Beetle. They are my babies. A Bentley is a very regal car, and Yorkies prance about as if they own the world. Beetles are small, and so are Yorkies. I wanted to get another female dog and I thought of naming her Aston.”
- “A parachute I used for my first solo skydiving. It’s not usable any more because they all have a life after which you don’t use them. I used to skydive religiously once a month.”
- “A silver teapot I’ve used since, gosh, aeons. I love having separate tea. It’s from Cooke and Kelvey, a very old teapot that my mother bought. It’s one of those silly things that I love. It puts a smile on my face.”
- “A chest of drawers in my room which I shipped back from America. I’m very fond of old silver so all the knobs I got changed to antique silver knobs. I’ve spent a lot of time changing things on it.”
- “A very old silk Persian carpet that my grandfather used to put on a camel when he went riding in Rajasthan. It’s small, but the details and the colours! Now I use it as a wall-hanging.”