Can you sit still?

In return, the sombre colour palette, reminiscent of earth, sand, soil and wheat husks, rewards our patience: from bolster cushions, pillows and cushions covered in a mesmerising, cane-like woven texture, to unadorned bedding and tablecloths bearing a singular, contrasting stitch that zigs, zags, and holds attention with ease. Why pick this route of restraint? “I think this collection was just evolving in my head for five to six years now,” confesses Anuj. As an India-proud textile and product designer, he stresses how he wanted The Still Room to present a new, contemporary side of Indian craftsmanship to a global audience. “When you think of embroidery in our country, everything is more and more and more. But here, it’s less and less and less,” he affirms.

But the collection wasn’t just born out of defiance for the West’s narrow, ornamental understanding of India. It began as an urge to understand what makes a space feel truly lived-in, hand in hand with Anuj’s own personal journey towards mindfulness. Each creation attempts to answer two pertinent questions: before we step outside and surrender to the world’s rhythm, how should our home, our innermost haven and cocoon, make us feel? And could the way we furnish our spaces change the way we experience our immediate surroundings?

And thus, The Still Room was born. Replete with micro-pleats, tone-on-tone embroidery and the simplest of motifs and stripes in earthy hues, it rests heavy on intention. And in embracing intention through texture and design, the collection asks us to channel the same energy as we move through our homes. It asks you to feel the grain of the paper as you flip the pages of a book. To linger behind like the dappled sun, watching the light fall across your bed.

However, this callback to stillness is not expressed through poetics or preachy sermons. Anuj chooses to deliver them with witty one-or-two-liner quips instead! Case in point, you’ll find books with tongue-in-cheek titles like “An Extrovert’s Guide to Keeping Quiet,” and “How to Leave a Party Early,” scattered across tables and shelves at the NO-MAD store (with blank pages inside. Could we scribble a few tips in?). A copy of Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me sits open atop a plush bed in the corner, exposing a bookmark that reads “Captions on the ‘Gram don’t count as literature” (a particular favourite of Anuj’s, who confesses that deleting his personal Instagram was the best decision he’d ever made).

Our attention may be a tech billionaire’s greatest currency today, but The Still Room’s refreshing take on minimalism comes hand-in-hand with a valuable reminder: sometimes, true contentment emerges when you slow down and find pleasure in smaller, everyday rituals. As novelist Pico Iyer puts it best, “In an age of distraction, nothing can feel more luxurious than paying attention. And in an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still.”

Read more: No-Mad’s South Mumbai store breaks conventional boundaries and embraces the authenticity of street culture