Cyrus S. H. Jhabvala
Professor Cyrus S.H. Jhabvala was a prominent Indian architect who shaped generations of architects at the Delhi School of Planning and Architecture. A fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, his firm, Anand, Aptay and Jhabvala, belonged to the generation of architectural firms which rebuilt Delhi to suit a newly independent India. He was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1920 to parents steeped in the activism of the Indian freedom movement. He spent his first two and a half decades there and then went to London for a few years to work and study. He married Ruth Prawer Jhabvala in 1951. Ruth became a well-known author, winning the Booker Prize and later, 2 Oscars for her screenplays. The couple raised 3 daughters in Delhi.
Professor Jhabvala lived and practiced architecture in Delhi for the next 3 decades, all the while keeping alive his talent as an artist. He started visiting New York in the 1970s to accompany his wife who wrote many screenplays for Merchant Ivory Productions. He permanently moved to New York in the late 1980s where he continued to draw and paint. He lived in New York until the death of his wife in 2013 after which he spent the remainder of his life in Los Angeles. He lived there with his family until his death in 2014.
Cyrus Jhabvala was awarded the South Asia Architect of The Year Award in 1996 by then Indian Prime Minister I.K. Gujral.
Cyrus Jhabvala published three books of artwork:
Delhi Stones And Streets, Ravi Dayal, 1990
Old Delhi - New York: Personal Views, Lustre Press/Roli Books, 2008
Delhi Phoenix City, Ravi Dayal/Penguin Studio, 2012
For further information regarding the life and work of CSH Jhabvala you may refer to the following: