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RAJAN HOUSE JAIPUR : A Boutique Homestay With Heart And Heritage
INTERIOR | 20th Aug, 2025
Where heritage arches, block-printed details, and warm hosting create a home you’ll never want to leave.
There’s something about Rajan House that makes you feel you’ve stumbled upon a friend’s place rather than checked into a guesthouse. Maybe it’s the modest iron gate, maybe it’s Gypsy the dog rushing to greet you, or maybe it’s the way Kushagra Nigam and Reena Rathore stand at the entrance- half hosts, half old friends. From the very first frame, it’s clear: this is not a stay, it’s a home. They live on the ground floor, keeping the guest experience as personal as it gets.
The Backstory That Stays in the Walls
Located just 3.5 km from Jantar Mantar, Rajan House sits discreetly in Gopalbari, a quieter pocket off Jaipur’s Ajmer Road. The property was purchased over 75 years ago by Nigam’s grandfather. In the early 1990s, his mother, Kiran, transformed it into a family residence. By 2024, the first floor had been reimagined as a boutique guesthouse.
The name is deeply personal. Rajan was Nigam’s father, a computer engineer with an appreciation for music, poetry, and the art of bringing people together. His letters, once a staple of family life, are now framed in the central living room alongside his vinyl records, postcards, Polaroid photographs, and aviator sunglasses. The result is less an interior display and more a visual memoir.
There are four rooms, each in a distinct palette: blue-red, yellow-apricot, sage green-ivory, and pink-white. All have ensuite bathrooms, reading nooks, air-conditioning, and block-printed linens by Rathore herself. The family room fits both bunk beds and a double bed, perfect for parents with kids. Two rooms open to small balconies ideal for morning chai. The façade carries five centenary arches, a nod to Rajasthani heritage buildings, and a spiral staircase leads to the first-floor living area.
There are no TVs here intentionally. “If you want a screen, we have a better one,” Nigam says, pointing to the open-air conversation pit. Inspired by Rajasthan’s stepwells, it doubles as a cinema with a projector and screen, perfect for movies under the stars.
A Stay That Plays Like a Film
Days at Rajan House unfold unhurriedly. Morning light spills through the arches, afternoons invite a turn on the lawn swing or reading in a shaded balcony, and evenings often draw guests and hosts alike to the terrace or conversation pit.
Why “Nani ka ghar” Fits
Although not in its title, the house embodies the unpretentious generosity of a grandparent’s home. Chai appears before bags are unpacked, conversations flow between kitchen and terrace, and guests are encouraged to settle in as if the place were their own. Terrazzo floors, patterned tiles, and instinctively chosen furnishings replace the over-styled “themed” rooms of typical boutique hotels.
Nigam’s own childhood here was spent among visiting relatives, friends of friends, and even unannounced guests who were nonetheless served a proper meal. Today, that open-door policy remains, albeit with an occasional pour-over coffee or recommendation for Jaipur’s best ghevar.
Nostalgia, Thoughtfully Updated
The couple have managed to preserve the warmth and informality of a family home while layering in design choices that make it memorable. Rajan House offers something rare in a city defined by grand hotels and palace stays, a place that is personal, layered with history, and deeply hospitable without artifice.
It is the kind of stay where the story of the house becomes part of your own. You depart not only with photographs but with the sense of having been welcomed into a living, breathing home, one that, much like its name, carries its legacy forward with quiet pride.
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