You couldn’t wait for me to show you around?” asks the 64-year-old multihyphenate, finding us peek into “new” Natarani, three weeks ago. We are already through the doors, the guards calling up “Didi” (as Mallika Sarabhai is fondly addressed by everyone at Darpana) to inform of our arrival, the exquisite blackand-white picture of the late Mrinalini ‘Amma’ Sarabhai welcoming us in.

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The blue wall — now a favourite ‘backdrop’ for citizens for photo shoots — that looks out to the Riverfront was created by Nimish Patel and Parul Zaveri of Abhikram. Patel tells Mirror, “When we essentially started working on the wall, there were three important things. One, to reduce the traffic noise as much as possible. Two, we wanted to use simple, local materials. And three, we wanted it to look beautiful.” 

From potted plants/creepers to cover the wall to creating one with dry leaves porous enough to absorb sound — multiple experiments were conducted before achieving the combination that worked. Patel went on to explain how they found Ravindra Chauhan, a mason/craftsman from Uttar Pradesh, who came down with an assistant and worked on the wall for days, and also taught the local workers their style. “Then, sound engineer Khushrau Jilla was called for from Mumbai, who suggested the placement of metal plates in a curve (like a concave) to bounce off the noise back to the river,” Patel reveals, adding “We carried out sound experiments for days, from 8.30am to 10pm!” 

Finally, the plates were set in a rhythmic fashion, and “Yadavan chose the colour of the wall, the blue that you see now”. “He threw us multiple challenges, it was a great experiment,” adds Patel. 

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