What she taught me: Lessons in life and legacy from our favourite mother-child duos

Inheritance is rarely just what is given. It is what is absorbed, reinterpreted, and passed down over time. Within the mother-child dynamic, this exchange becomes a living archive of instincts, aesthetics, and ways of seeing the world. Across the worlds of design and art, these pairings reveal how influence moves in both directions, and is continuously re-authored.

This Mother’s Day, we spotlight iconic mother-child legacies, whose inter-generational collaborations speak to a powerful continuity of lineage, style, and talent.

    Image courtesy: The Gujral Foundation

Feroze Gujral is a cultural leader and philanthropist with over 2 decades of experience in shaping India’s contemporary art and design landscape. She is the Founder and Director of The Gujral Foundation, a non-profit arts trust established in 2008 with her husband Mohit Gujral. Her daughter, Alaiia Gujral  is an artist, curator, and creative director, working between Chicago and New Delhi. Her works across collectible design, sculptural objects, and immersive environments has led her to many established echelons across the world of art and design.

Feroze and Alaiia’s relationship unfolds as an instinct. For Feroze, the learning has been one of observance. In Alaiia, she observes an artistic sensibility grounded in meticulous care. There is, she notes, a refusal to rush, a commitment to refinement, and an ability to hold both the smallest detail and the larger vision in the same frame.

“In a time often defined by frivolous temporariness and fleeting attention, she carries an unusual wisdom and steadiness, valuing depth, craft, and meaning. Whether through art, design, or the way she approaches everyday life, she brings discipline and an aesthetic sensitivity that makes everything she touches feel considered and enduring.

In this respect I learn new ways of seeing everyday and moving through this fast-changing world into the future, her hand in mine.”

Feroze Gujral

For Alaiia, the inheritance is something altogether more expansive. In Feroze, she has witnessed a life unbound by permission, not seeking validation. In an age of constant scrutiny, her mother’s ability to move freely becomes both an anchor and provocation for her.

“She is one of the most genuinely diverse people I know, not in a performed way, but in how she actually lives. She can go from being underwater on a dive, to sitting lost in a book, to walking into a room and holding it completely. That breadth is something I try to bring into my work too. The spaces and objects I create always carry multiple conversations at once, and I think that instinct comes directly from watching her move through the world the way she does.”

Alaiia Gujral

    Image courtesy: Within

As Co-founder and Principal Designer at Within, Sonal Tuli approaches her practice with a rare expansiveness, moving seamlessly across interior design, furniture, art, lighting, carpet, and graphic design. Entering this evolving world is her son Ishaan Tuli - modern, forward-looking, and attuned to a global context. His world is driven by curiosity – cycling through cities, framing moments through a camera lens, or assembling thoughts with the precision of a Lego enthusiast.

From Sonal, Ishaan inherits a way of moving through the world with gentleness. Years of witnessing her spiritual journey have shaped him to lead with kindness. It is a lesson that extends beyond design, informing his life and vision.

“My mother has been on a spiritual journey for many years, and I’ve seen how deeply it has shaped her personality. What I’ve learned from her is to lead with kindness, to be considerate of people around me, and to carry that same compassion into the way I work and lead others.”

Ishaan Tuli

From Ishaan, Sonal receives something lighter altogether. A reminder to loosen her grasp, to find joy in the in-between moments, to laugh – even in intensity. There is a beauty in which he elevates the everyday, making even the most ordinary days memorable.

“What Ishaan has taught me is to live with a sense of lightness, to laugh often, enjoy every little moment, and simply be. We are always laughing when we are together, even in the middle of the most serious working day. He has a beautiful way of making the simplest moments feel deeply special.”

Sonal Tuli

    Image courtesy: Tabula Rasa

As Founder and Principal Designer at Tabula Rasa, Nithika Agarwal works with a deliberate language, with a practice that is rooted in restraint. Extending this language into the present is her daughter Annanya Agarwal, who brings a distinct clarity of voice to the brand. As Brand Director, she navigates the intersection of design and narrative, fashioning how Tabula Rasa is seen, understood, and positioned within a global context. 

Between them, the exchange is deeply personal yet transformative. From Nithika, Annanya inherits a redefinition of strength. It is a lesson lived rather than taught: that love, in its most steadfast form, can hold, sustain, and rebuild. In witnessing her mother move through uncertainty with grace, she has come to understand resilience as the ability to remain open. 

“More than anything, she has shown me what it means to build a life from courage and compassion at the same time. To remain deeply sensitive in a world that often rewards hardness. To keep creating, keep giving, keep believing, even when the road ahead is unclear.”

Annanya Agarwal

From Annanya, Nithika receives something more instinctive: a return to a way of seeing untouched by expectation. In her daughter, she observes an unfiltered engagement with the world. Through Annanya, she is reminded to trust what is felt over what is prescribed, to allow imperfection, and to remain open to the evolution of her work.

“My work today carries traces of my daughter, her softness, her strength, her wonder. Not as a visible signature, but as an undercurrent. An invisible thread that runs through everything I make.

She is not just my daughter. She is a muse, and in many ways, the reason my work feels more alive than it ever has.”

Nithika Agarwal

What binds these mother-child legacies is an invisible continuity that flows through both life and practice. A shared language, an inheritance. An enigmatic creation and an evolving story of who they continue to become.

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