‘Home is where the Heart is’ aptly describes Ranjana. Her tastefully done up home has art and artifacts in every corner, pointing to her fine sense of aesthetics and an intrinsic eye for beauty. A self-confessed blessed and spiritual person, she admits that her profession demands ‘keeping emotions aside’. While always wanting to become a criminal lawyer, her honesty veered her towards civil and corporate law. “Emotionally every lawyer does get disturbed is what I feel, though we may not show much emotion on the job.”
She was working as a litigating lawyer in Delhi when she married and moved to Dubai in 1995. “Though UAE was and still continues to be a land of opportunities, but back then there was no way for an expatriate lawyer to become a litigating attorney in Dubai Courts.” An opportunity knocked at her door and she joined Al Maya Lal’s for their upcoming project ‘Lamcy Plaza’ taking care of leasing, marketing, and legal contracts. After the handover of Lamcy Plaza, she joined Union Properties and was then connected with the Real Estate, Property, and Facility Management Industry till 2009.
Channeling The Divine
Unfurling in a period of self-discovery, her home began to beckon and poke her with its bareness. It set her on a path of flirting with design and color, where she would paint the walls, collect bricks, and create colorful corners around the house. When the family moved into a villa, it got to now playing with mediums like sand and stone. In the course of her explorations doing up her home, Ranjana started looking for a painting with Sanskrit Shloka (verse) inscriptions. Not finding anything that matched her desire, she decided to paint it herself. “I bought a large canvas and looked at it for a long time till an idea flashed. It took me a few days, but when it was ready, I couldn’t believe it turned out to be exactly the way I had imagined it to be. I still don’t believe that I can paint and don’t ever call myself an artist. I’m more of a creative person guided by this spiritual power which helps me achieve what goes on in my imagination,” she says, truly believing in being blessed beyond measure. Her first painting is the one that still remains closest to her heart.
Before starting on a new painting, Ranjana says she quite naturally slips into a different world where she does not communicate with anybody. “It is a beautiful space where I feel connected to my own spirit and my consciousness.” Despite not being qualified as an artist, Ranjana has stayed away from formal training as it allows her to not follow the rules and let her free spirit take over the canvas instead. Her husband Ajay agrees, adding, “Once Ranjana is passionate about something, she puts her heart and soul into it, adding creativity, colors, passion, dedication and devotion in every piece of work.”
A Colorful Future
A recent endeavor of Ranjana is her website (www.ministryofcolors.online) through which she is promoting, marketing, and selling an array of items that she creates. The website currently has her paintings, recrafted furniture, and antique jewelry. In the coming days and months, a few art pieces and artists will be marketed and promoted through her platform. After a decade of painting, she feels it is her positive energy that transforms into her work. In her opinion the best way to know a person is to visit their home because a person’s abode really is a reflection of one’s soul.
Before starting on a new painting, Ranjana says she quite naturally slips into a different world where she does not communicate with anybody
Her love for jewelry is rustic, evident from her collection of silver trinkets with Rudra beads. “I am very attached to the Rudraksha, which is also known as ‘Shiva’s Teardrops’. Wearing one is something I deeply love as it makes me feel the presence and of God within, always guiding me.”
Through her other company ‘Ground Reality Consulting’ based in Delhi, Ranjana continues to offer legal consulting handling corporate, family, and civil related cases. She also helps her husband with his international procurement & logistics business, looking over the local procurement and legal aspects of all the contracts. Apart from her current ventures, Ranjana who is fond of cooking hopes to soon launch a food-related business, where she envisions giving a contemporary twist to traditional fare.
A qualified lawyer, social entrepreneur, co-founder of a consulting firm, interior designer, music aficionado, painter, artist, and above all a wife and a mother, Ranjana embraces life in myriad forms with incredible zest, energy, and purpose. Her effervescent and infectious disposition seeps through all her pursuits and creations. She loves adventure sports and is steadfast about helping people in whichever way she can. “Today, not many people have the time to listen. It is important that we hear people and reassure them, which encourages them to do what they are passionate about.”
A dear friend of Ranjana contributed this small note about her: “Reclusive yet sociable, vivacious yet grounded, bohemian yet traditional, spiritual yet worldly, Ranjana’s paintings, art and artifacts capture the gamut of human emotions, expressions, and perhaps contradictions. She moves with consummate ease between subjects and varied forms – abstract or landscapes – to create strong motifs that resonance perfectly with a consistent theme – Belief!”