Abhilash Thapliyal puts the art in heart

The scooter-turned-coffee table in actor Abhilash Thapliyal’s living room is a testament to the respect and love he has for his late dad

At Maidaan star Abhilash Thapliyal’s Mumbai apartment, there is a special piece of decor — his father’s classic Bajaj scooter, which now doubles up as a coffee station. The actor and RJ calls it the ‘engine of the house’. “The scooter, I think, was the first luxurious thing we had in our lives,” he says. “My father bought it really late, in the mid 90s, and it was our prized possession then, as it is now.”

The blue two-wheeler, bought brand new after rejecting a round of second-hand vehicles, had carried Thapliyal home from school on many days, and is still the source of many dear memories. Thapliyal, who lost his father to cancer, fondly remembers him as the most honest and simple man he has ever known. “This [losing my father] was my first heartbreak,” he says. “I don’t want to let go of my father’s memory. I want to think about him every day, and wanted him to be a part of this home.”

Thapliyal begins every day with the scooter serving as a representation of the love and respect he had for his parent. Unlike the Chetak or other scooters of the time, which had two individual seats, the Bajaj Classic SL had a long single seat. This made it ideal for a coffee table.

Currently having finished a short film, and with another film’s shoot scheduled for November, Thapliyal uses his home as a place to relax and reconnect with himself. The apartment is full of interesting features: a cosy swing with a rattan woven back that can be flipped depending on which side he wants to face; the framed ticket of his Cannes Film Festival Debut for Anurag Kashyap’s Kennedy; and a poem he wrote after he resigned from his job as a radio jockey.

But, no doubt, the best piece of decor is his father’s scooter, girded with a red wrought iron frame, and holding atop it his wife Anubhooti’s coffee station. (Thapliyal loves his chai.) “We did not want to create a hotel room,” he shares. “We wanted [our house] to be an extension of ourselves.”

The scooter has consistently surprised and often tugged on the heartstrings of all those who’ve come to his home. The statement piece is a wonderful conversation starter, and has also proved to be an inspiration to his guests to preserve their own prized belongings in innovative ways. Most of all, though, the piece remains a testament to filial love. “It is really tough for [our parents] to express their emotions. So we need to take that initiative, too. We need to start saying ‘I love you, dad’. I want to say that to my father,” Thapliyal concludes.