Gulshan-e-Iran was an iconic café in Bombay, in Crawford Market. The building where it stood had apartments above it. My father once lived in that building, it was the first home he bought when he came to Bombay and very much marked an ideological expansion into the cosmopolitan for him. It was a tiny one-bedroom place. I still vaguely remember it, especially the powder blue walls.
Over the years I visited that building many times, and I remember going to Gulshan Iran Café whenever I was in Bombay later in life. Those visits stayed with me as quiet, fond memories.
The café was part of a much larger story. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many Iranian Zoroastrians and Muslims migrated to India, especially to Bombay, fleeing hardship and seeking new opportunities. They opened small cafés and bakeries that became an essential part of the city’s culture. These Iranian cafés were simple places with bentwood chairs, marble tables, glass jars of biscuits, and endless cups of chai. They became meeting points for writers, workers, students, and dreamers.
I made this painting and called it Gulshan-e-Iran in memory of my father and of those secular spaces that hold our personal histories.
When I think about it now, I also feel a deep sadness about what has happened to people in Iran. It must be unimaginably devastating for those who have their families stuck there. My prayers in paint are with them.
#aplusdinterviews The first main characters in Nilofer Suleman's (@nilofersuleman ) work came straight from the streets and from her life. The man was someone who used to frame her paintings; the woman, her son’s strict Kannada teacher. From there, the cast grew: people she noticed on the streets, the lady who cooked in her house, the landlady from the two-bedroom apartment she rented.
She tried Cubism, Surrealism, all sorts of styles, but what connected to her was life as she (we) knows it: the streets of Indore, Bengaluru, Bombay, Delhi; the chaos of Chor Bazaar and the bustle of Chandni Chowk.
Read the full interview through the link in bio!
Portraits by Zayira Ray (@zay.ira ) (@nobordersshop )
Text by Krupakshi Mehta (@krupakshii )
I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once” - John Green
Gulshan-e-Iran | 2025
A work in progress. Come visit these beautiful paintings at Art Mumbai 2025
𝐍𝐎 𝐁𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐏𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐑𝐒 presents Nilofer Suleman🌹
This Women’s History Month, we’re celebrating with a month-long photo series capturing the inspiring journeys of the women who move us💝
We’ve had the privilege of knowing @nilofersuleman for over two years now, and every visit to her home always leaves us so inspired 🦋✨Her vibrant, intricate paintings rich with patterns, colors, and storytelling 🌞 have inspired our journey and influenced our styling and design in so many ways 💕
Our story, "No Borders with Nilofer Suleman ✨ Reflecting on Art, Identity & Resistance" takes you through intimate reflections of Nilofer’s journey as a woman and how she redefined and broke boundaries in the art world with her work🫶🏾🌹
Read full story 🌹 Link in Bio 🔗
Nilofer is wearing @nobordersinhouse and
@iamisigo 🌞 Shop online 🏡
Shot by @zay.ira
HMU and styling @elton_john_d
Art direction @ashgajare 💕
'She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes; '
-Lord Byron
Nathumal Shorimal Beediwala | 2024
#nilofersuleman
