SANJANA SHAH

A defining moment in my 8 year sisterhood with Sanj was a reading-trip to Mussoorie. (reading trips are incredible, you guys should try it) Representative of my carefree attitude, I was working under the assumption that we were going to Shimla and so I booked us flights to Delhi so we can drive to Shimla. Upon landing, Sanj burst my bubble by informing me that we were actually booked at a spa resort in Mussoorie. (Normal people would have flown to Dehradun to drive up to Mussoorie)

Characteristic of Sanj, she got into planning mode and managed to get us a car to drive up to Mussoorie from Delhi.

(it was a painful car ride - took us 8 hours because of roads being blocked for a festival). 4 hours into our car ride, our driver, of course, is confused with the directions to the resort. Sanj calls up the manager so he can give directions to our driver. She hands over her phone and having understood the directions and returning the phone to Sanj, she casually pulls out her hand sanitizer and begins to SANITIZE HER PHONE. In her defence, the driver did cough into the phone multiple times and the last thing we needed was one of us coming down with the flu on our reading trip. But the sheer act of pulling out some sanitizer and wiping her screen clean had me laughing the next 4 hours and continues to make me laugh, every time I tell this story.

5 years later, if I have a cold, the woman will oblige me with a cuddle but will also sanitize her hands and mine and pour hot green tea down my throat. But jokes apart, I couldn’t be more grateful to have her as my soul sister, cuddle partner, art introducer and food hogger. Her passion for art is inspiring and she’s beautifully imprinted her personality, vision and sensibilities into Tao Art Gallery. There couldn’t be someone more suitable to represent India’s art scene on an international platform.

Written by Yashasvi Kathotia