FREEWHEELING with Freedom Tree
Sanity & Sensibility. Where work is Shaili’s sanity. And why she tunes into the Freedom Tree sensibility.
We continue our chat with Shaili Chopra, where she talks of work, home life and Freedom Tree as a force of ‘creative destruction’, like the Big Bang theory.
@shailichopra
July 2025
What drives Shaili to get up and go?
W“I think in one word, sanity. You know, I love the idea of being sane in my own space. That for me is work ... It's delicious. It's like my dessert. I need it. I have to go to work. I love the idea of heading into a workplace and having a plan, breaking the plan, making the plan. I think there's just something addictive about building something.”
“With my armed forces background. I've seen my dad work like crazy. He's been a fighter pilot, and I have seen him wake up every day at an insane hour to go and fly the planes he did and worry us all about being in supersonic jets.”
“What counts is having that moment of achievement for oneself. I'm not like a person who has a timetable. But I do feel like when you arrive in a space, you have five people to talk to, and fifty things emerge, right? And there's that energy. So for me, in many ways, work is energy created with others.”
Feel good when we do good
W“Sometimes it's to live shared experiences with people that also borrow and lend energies. We just love that, don't we? If we have the ability to hang with somebody, they make your day better.”
“You also get a sense of being able to contribute to something, and work with somebody else. We're humans at the end of the day. The only thing that takes us away from that animal instinct, is our ability to feel good when you do good. Not just when you get good for yourself.”
“Even though I've lived in a vibrant newsroom setup, I went to a work-from-home mode when setting up SheThePeople. Now I’m back with Gytree into an office. It’s nice to see the different ways in which people come together.”
Enjoying the chaos and the hustle
W“I was product of a military household and never want to change my childhood. I had to change 17 schools in 12 classes and make new friends with every change. There was an energy that it brought into my life. The ability to just pack your bags and sometimes disconnect and then reconnect and build new relationships.”
“And I also set up new homes with my parents. I would not trade that for anything. Childhood in the military can be fairly structured because your homes are pretty much the same pattern everywhere you go. One kind of knows which sofa goes where, which painting goes on an adjoining wall, with the little terracotta horse with it.“
“In the ‘80s and the ’90s, buying things for the home was about whatever came from different towns of the country into your little camp. So I would say we learned to do a lot with very little. There would be the some things from Phulkari from Amritsar, Bidri work would come from Hyderabad. This also made our homes very regionally exciting.”
Being purposeful about parties!
W“One of the things that I learned as a child in the air forces was how to welcome people into your house. That's a thing that I now have as a switch. When I'm feeling stuck in life, I just say, ‘Let's throw some parties.’ Calling people home, gets me purposeful about doing something. Get new sets of glasses, change this cover, bring new energy into the house.”
“And I feel that it works. Sometimes it's like you're peeling off a layer of your own and emerging new, but also getting people home wipes and energizes. I'm a big fan of that. I used to always say my house in Bombay is small, but it has a great vibe, right? It's never about the size. And it's always about what and how things flow when people come.”
“Do they stay late? Do they have fun? Are they comfortable putting up their legs and just chilling? It's okay if a glass breaks and it's okay if there's a spill. [Although for somebody who's reading this, I am a little sticky about sofas getting spoiled.]”
Memories, quiet corners and freedom of the mind
W“My sense of design and space is built with the freedom of the mind as opposed to freedom in the size of the space. When I moved to a much bigger house in Delhi, it took me to years to put it together. I wanted every corner to have a story. Its not an Instagram fetish, It gives me an opportunity to do things differently. I’ve always enjoyed a corner to lean on.”
“I'm a huge reader, at any given time reading two to three books. I like to feel the space where I'm reading. Why do you smile looking at some part of nature? You don't always smile looking at the scale of a large mountain range. You smile at a brook, with an awkward little tree that's barely balancing, and you're like, oh, what a picturesque moment, right? I think that's what corners do for homes.”
“Two statuette heads were the start of my music corner. My turntable sits there as well. They vanished from our world when everything went digital, and they've made a comeback. I have turned the little changing table of my first child into a new box for the vinyls. So there's a memory there. Our children or the people around us see how you romance life in how you do up your house.”
“To me, beauty is functionality, and functionality is beauty. I really don't see the purpose of something just sitting there, sitting pretty, you know? It's a bit feminist for me to say that, because women were always sort of things that sit pretty and look pretty silently. So I just want everybody to be up to some work, whatever they are!”
Romancing the sunshine and breeze
WWe asked Shaili, about universal abstract element that she first looks for in a home, rather than just structure or tangible things. Shaili animatedly pitches in, “I genuinely think that a lot of the things in your home, have both philosophy and life because of what you do with the space. I have never accepted living in a home where there was not enough sunshine. I say this often but sunshine is literally the tiramisu of my life.”
“I feel like I want to dress up and feel happy or just read a book or get more tea than normal, because the sun is out, right? I'm a very summer girl. My college days in Madras been one of the most influencing factors of my love for cultures, space, sunshine. Because that city that can bring modernism, with such deep traditions together. Those gorgeous courtyards where the sun would shine and then there would be rain, which would gather in the tree leaves.”
“Breeze - I learned in Bombay. In 2003. I spent two days in a taxi going up and down the sea-front. I told the cabbie, "You're my man now. You will go up and down this city, and I will just enjoy the breeze. I'm not hiring you to go to a destination." And then you get the sea breeze on your face, and then you’re like, ‘Oh, my God. There can be romance beyond a person.’ You know It's such a sense of freedom. Bombay teaches you that public spaces for women can be a thing.”
Sensibilities that push you beyond
“I like sensibilities that poke. I like the idea of things that push you to things beyond, in their look and feel. Today, it seems commonplace, but there was a reason why I fell in love with what Andy Warhol did. He questioned the norm and just turned everything around by tearing what’s standard practice.”
“I really don't see why glamour can't be simple. And I also don't see why glamour can't be abstract. Again, we are fed on what is a good looking house. We are constantly told what is opulence, what is luxury. And somehow the definition of all of these is broadly between sequins and some form of glitz.”
“Over decades now, from the little store in Bombay , I have used Freedom Tree products. I like that the insides of the bowls and the outsides of the bowls are not matched. I like the fact that they're contrasted, because I do feel that food needs style in where it rests. I love hosting and presenting people food nicely. I just think everybody should be dressed, including food.”
“And food is such a thing that binds a good party together. The gathering around a table is where the magic happens. It's really is. They're going to remember your food, the crumbs and whether people were using it to wipe off the curry. The free conversations and the freewheeling.”
Creative Destruction
“I found that Freedom Tree really relates this sensibility of mine. There's a pop of colour. Yet you have monochromes, which you can sometimes use to reflect, a quieter time, or just whatever's going on within. Sometimes you need your world to speak to you with what you're going through.”
“I also feel that the ability to be a bit cross matched is fundamentally what allows for a breakout. The economist, Shumpeter talks about creative destruction. The idea of the word ‘creative’ with the word ‘destruction’. How those two come together and just let loose whatever you want to explore.”
So in that way, I think there's a little Big Bang theory every time I come to a Freedom Tree store, or when I'm scrolling the website, I'm like, "Oh, they can do this and this. Oh, that's quite nice, a surprise."
On that note, we extend a warm thank you to Shaili for her openness, time, and kindness. She loves sunshine, even amidst the rains that Bombay is blessed with these days. Maybe a chance to cool off and enjoy the breeze.
Part two here :
@HouseofBeserk on the ever-changing responsibility of art in a public realm
