At 13, Akshat Bhatt picked up the guitar as well as an interest in design. “My uncle, who was an architect, had started designing our house. He was a six-foot-something tall guy, with a salt-and-pepper beard and head, and soft-spoken with distinct mannerisms—I had never seen anyone like that. When I went to his house later, I saw his drawing board on the floor, and  was fascinated by the stationery and drawing equipment. It was technical and mechanical, but still very cool and colourful,” remembers Bhatt. He thinks it was this instantaneous attraction which drove him to architecture in the first place. “My uncle told me that I would have to be an architect to get this equipment. I went back home and announced to my grandparents that I was going to become an architect.”

In 2007, he founded Architecture Discipline, a New Delhi-based multi-disciplinary design practice. But it is the story behind his other love, the one for rare guitars that makes him more than a run-of-the-mill successful architect. “Before I turned 13, I used to play a couple of instruments, shifting from a Hawaiian guitar to the bongo and then the keyboard. I remember the moment when the guitar caught my fancy—a Guns N’ Roses music video was playing on MTV, with Slash playing the solo to November Rain. I got fascinated and told myself that I have to get a guitar.”