Sayali Goyal’s Everyday Indian Aesthetic showcases various aspects of Indian design, art, architecture, fashion, and crafts, highlighting the unique and intricate details that define the Indian aesthetic through her eyes, while leaving space for your own interpretation. The book is a collection of her travels across India over eight years, showcasing everyday design elements that reflect Indian sensibilities in materials, colours, architecture, interiors, typography, and traditional attire. Here is a candid interview that we recently carried out with her.
1. What is the last book you read?
I just read The Monocle Companion: Fifty Ideas for Building Better Cities. I love everything Monocle does.
2. A guilty pleasure?
I have been listening to Lebanese music these days. It has been a pleasure but dark chocolate gelato also continues to make me feel guilty.
3. Where do you write? Do you have a favourite spot?
I usually take notes on my phone as sometimes great ideas happen in the middle of another task and then edit on my computer, usually in my balcony overlooking the green. I think it is better in natural light.
4. What is a book that has stayed with you?
I have read a few Elif Shafak’s works over the years and revisited them several times. It has this quality to take me to another time that feels familiar and comforting.
5. What apart from what you do today do you wish you could do or pursue as a career?
I am hoping to work as a cultural anthropologist for an institution or a global organization.
6. Your greatest fear?
I have too many to choose from but my fear of closed small places has grown.
7. A trait you admire in yourself?
I think the ability to be vulnerable and authentic.
8. Who would be the guests at your perfect dinner party?
Heidi, Rumi and maybe my great-grandparents! What a dinner party.
9. A book you’d recommend to someone to get them out of a reading slump?
I have just started to read William Dalrymple’s The Golden Road and it seems to get me out of a slump.
Everyday Indian Aesthetic by Sayali Goyal
