Art for art's sake....some of my paintings.

Shibu Arakkal - photographer- bought on line from Indian Art collectors.

Tribute to Tyeb- a collage made by Raghu Wodeyar, a new artist discovered by Charles Saatchi.

As I write this and look around the room, I start smiling. One of my first impressions of Mumbai, was visiting this media baron's house in South Mumbai and looking at the wall covered in Hussains, Raza's and artists of such ilk. The gentleman was very knowledgeable and so was his wife, who painstakingly collected art, she knew the provenance, style, etc of each artist. I was bitten, but being a struggling model, whose priority was to pay her monthly rent, art took a back seat. I have over the years- 14 to be precise, collected some works by good artists. For me its a good combination of price point, name and work that I look for. Here I am sharing some of my collection with you.....



Totha Vaikuntam's - Telengana Man - bought in Bangalore - at Renaissance art gallery.

Totha Vaikuntam- Telengana woman bought from Renaissance art gallery in Bangalore.

Ranjit Kurmi- bought online from Saffronart.com. I fell in love with the colours.

The first Badri Narayan I bought in 1999, from Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai. I am fascinted by Lord Ganesha....as is half of India.

Badri - again bought in 1999. My husbands gifts to me.

The following year in 2000- I bought two more Badirnarayan's from Pundole, making it a set of four.

This is the second one.

This Badrinarayan, was called "Burial at sea" (TBC), was my Mom's gift to me bought in 2006.

Also in my collection are a nude by Laxma Goud, J M S Mani's - Badami woman, Krishnappa's - flute player, and Jiaur Rehman's - Sea Scape and then the late Bimal Das Guptas series of 4 paintings of Sea scapes. The list goes on....but that is for another day.....

The KINGS of our house- Nandu and Sox

This one is Soxu, showing off his water drinking abilities.....from the bottle no less!!

The lovely Eames Chair that Sox has taken over and NO one is allowed to sit on it.

Nandu wanted to be part of the conversation, so decided to climb onto my Chinese chair!

Nandu, testing my patience and love for him by sleeping on the forbidden sofa....okay it was during Christmas, you know the season to forgive.....

They both love freshly made beds....and if possible our pillows.

This post is all about the two dee-ple (thats short form for Dog people who have made such a difference to our lives). My two rescued dogs, Nandu and Sox.

The Roman Holiday.........

Keith and me inside the Vatican
The Vatican museums
The Vatican museum
The bronze statue of Hercules
The famous Sistine Chapel
Vatican museum- Thinking Man- RodinIn front of the Vatican
The famous Castle St. Angelo

The Spanish Steps






From the roof of the Vatican dome.

Trevi fountain
Keiths favourite building in all of Rome- the Colleseum- breathtaking




The Pietta statue- by Micheal Angelo
My checklist continues, as I tick off another destination I loved. A must see, Rome is all about history. The old and new live together very well.

A city more than 2000 years old, and still living very well. The women are fashionable and sexy and the men fashionable and bronzed. Food was good. Will I go back, most definitely. Feet still pain, as I walked all over the place.

We visited the Vatican musuems of course, me being this art buff... and its everything they tell you, you coulvad spend days there, its soo vast. Took the famous Roman Holiday walk, down from the Vatican, down the banks of the river Tiber, past Castle Saint Angelo, to the Spanish Steps, and then to the Trevi Fountain, had a gelato a shop. The walk is beautiful, and lots of cobble stone footpaths(not very good for your feet).

Will I go back, most definitely.

Checklist of places to see before we die.....

Just going to put it down on paper...a checklist of places to see before we die..
The places in the world you gotta go to..

1) The Taj Mahal- Agra- Obviously I am Indian...been there about 5 times..love it every time, and good for the Archeological Survey of India for cleaning up the place and making all the vehicles battery operated
2) Petra- Jordan- Breathtaking bas relief sculptures of the Roman garrison's stronghold...In fact the whole of Jordan, be it the Dead Sea, Jarash, Aqaba, Wadi Rumm, etc is beautiful.
3) Giza- Egypt the Pyramids and the Sphinx- sail down the Nile, go to Luxor, and the Valley of the Kings and of course the port city of Alexandria
4)CN Towers- Toronto- Canada, like a needle in the sky, if you are scared of heights, you need to be warned..its scary
5) Niagara Falls- from the Canadian side, the American side has nothing...lovely, breathtaking, Mother Nature at her best.
6) Petronas Towers- Malaysia- Was once the Worlds tallest towers, featured in countless movies, absolutely lovely architecture.
7) Sears Tower - Chicago- USA- Dont forget to go to the restaurant on the top, one floor below the top, and get a spectacular view of Chicago for miles on end.
8) Bahubali statue at Shravanbelogola- the tallest monolith statue carved out of one rock, the Jains biggest monument
9) Tokyo Towers, - kind of like the CN Towers in Canada, the only difference in Tokyo, with the old and the new right next to each other it not surprising that this structure exists in the land of earthquakes.
10) The sleeping Buddha's statue in Bangkok, covered in gold leaf this statue of the Buddha, is the biggest.
11) Safari's either in Kenya or South Africa
12) Safari either in Jim Corbett, Nagarhole or Ranthambore- anything to see the INDIAN TIGER

Now the agenda of the next ones to see

1) Rome, and the Vatican- for obvious reasons - now done
2) Greece- specifically the islands of Mykinos
3) Paris- France- the Arc de Trompe and the Museum
4) NY- Guegenhiem Museum
5) Mount Everest- or the Kanchanjunga...either or


Countdown begins.........

Something old and something new.......

A little nostalgic .....my favourite picture shot by the legendary Prabhudo Das Gupta....with Nayanika Chatterjee now Singh, Mehr jessia now Rampal and Madhu Sapre. In Rohit Khosla, in the middle of a jungle in Delhi.

It appears in a book on the late Rohit Khosla, and to me this epitomises fashion.

HARLEY DAVIDSON CLUB- VROOOM

Despite the 47 degrees in the sun and all wearing black, the Qatar Chapter of the Harley Davidson club came to Mesaieed, with some splendid display of beautiful bikes and good riding. I fell in love with a particular bike, custom built, custom fit and custom painted white bike of Sheikh Khaled, which made all the women go WOW!! Keith liked the more mellow Fat Boys on display...and his 40th birthday coming up, it may be a good gift dont you think!!!

The bikes have sound that is now we were told is the patented sound of the HARLEY....VROOOM

Visit to the Qatar Islamic Museum

Keith, Philippe and me went to the beautiful Qatar Islamic Museum last Saturday. The building is designed by I. M Pei- world reknowned architect.