Many of us are smitten with collecting. By surrounding themselves with the things they have worked so hard to gather, collectors get to enjoy their collections differently than those who choose to preserve or display them. One such collector is Monica Tata, the vice president, advertising sales and networks, India and South Asia for Turner International India.

Monica has a fabulous collection of shoes, bags and costume jewelry. Her keen sense of fashion and the sense of enjoyment in having a great collection of shoes, bags and jewelry is what attracted her to start collecting these items.

She has 150 pairs of footwear and 100 bags. And as for costume jewelry, Monica says, "It's difficult to put a number to what I possess but if I were to wear my jewelry everyday without repeating even one earring... I can do that without a problem for at least 500 days in a row!"

Traveling across the globe has helped Monica expand her collection. She has picked up these items from the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America. With a little knowledge and effort, everyone can find their own gems. Each found gem has its own 'story.' Whatever the reason for collecting, it fulfills emotions that lie at the heart of our personalities.

"In every visit of mine, five-six pairs of shoes and three-four bags is a very expected thing in my bag! This of course is not including my shopping binges in my India travels," says Monica.

When asked since when she has been nurturing her collection, Monica smiles, "Since I started affording it!" She admits to buying most herself but does have friends and family contributing to her collection and adds, "Yes, more of such gestures are more than welcome!"

She looks for colour, uniqueness, design in her favourite items and the fact that it should fit well and go with her personality.

Initially, when she started the collection, she was not much into brands. But, over the years she prefers to check out her preferred brands before the final buy. Says Monica, "Nine West is my favourite footwear brand but that doesn't stop me from buying shoes, bags and accessories from fancy malls to flee markets! As long it appeals to me - I just buy it!"

Monica doesn't reveal the amounts she spends on her collections. All she says is," If I tell you then I will have to kill you! Let's just say...A LOT!"

Ultimate luxury, instant gratification and imperial magnificence - qualities that are rare in today's world. Staying in the Udaivilas is like reliving the royal era in a more refined and modern way. The Oberoi Group's newest luxury resort is ideal for those seeking both beauty and tranquility.

The architecture of Udaivilas follows Mr. Oberoi's vision that it must represent the traditional designs of the grand Mewar tradition. Located on the banks of Lake Pichola, Udaivilas commands a beautiful view of the City Palace and two seventeenth century island palaces on the lake - Jag Mandir and Jag Nivas.

Guests are escorted from Udaipur airport in a chauffeur driven limousine to a private jetty, then ferried to the resort on board one of the resort's elegantly appointed boats. The transfer takes approximately 15 minutes, offering spectacular views of the Lake Pichola and palaces around it.

Spread over 30 acres and situated on an undulating hill, Udaivilas, though primarily a single-storied structure, has been built on three varying elevations, adding to the sense of scale. The architect of this property is Parul Jhaveri and Nimish Pate of Abhikram. Lim, Teo & Wilkes of Design Work is the interior designer. Tony Corbett of Tony Corbett & Associates is the lighting consultant and the structural consultant is Himanshu Parekh.
View of the City Palace from the lobby

The Udaivilas is classic Mewar in style and has antiques and fine paintings adorning the corridors and rooms. Guests can easily slip back into an earlier era when royalty, in their exquisite ensemble, majestically drifted past the elegantly adorned palace halls and colourful gardens. The entire ambience of the palace hotel is mesmerizing.

The architects have been working in the region for the past decade and a half, in order to re-establish traditional building methods, materials and technologies in the contemporary context. The design has therefore evolved as an assimilation of spaces of a traditional palace and the complex surrounding it, with domes and arches, pavilions and balconies, turrets, niches and jalis (screens).

In the main courtyard, soft green landscaping offsets a blend of elegant black granite and white marble. A luminous white marble lotus seemingly floats on a reflection pool. As night falls, the atmosphere takes on an almost surreal quality with the pale gold fa?ade of Udaivilas shimmering on the dark water.

The lobby, an arterial space with views of the lake and the surrounding mountains, has a central dome resplendent in gold leaf, complemented by a magnificent hand crafted chandelier and a white Thassos marble fountain. The flooring is in a combination of beige Karoli sandstone, Udaipur green marble and white Thassos marble.
Miniature 'sheesh mahal': The Candle Room

The lobby lounge, warm and inviting with hand crafted carpets and furniture, offers stunning views of Lake Pichola and the City Palace. The lounge is richly decorated, with Thekri work and a central dome painted in deep cobalt blue, with rays of the sun in gold leaf.

Adjacent to the lobby is the Candle Room, a miniature 'sheesh mahal' (glass palace). In palaces, the Maharajas used at least one of these rooms as a bedroom for the special ambience it created. The ceiling, 25 ft high and 18 ft in diameter, is a stunning reflecting canvas, with intricate Thekri work in the dome.
Head straight to the pool from your room

Thekri work, an art form unique to the region, adorns the space. In Thekri, molten glass is blown into circular balls using pipettes. When cool, molten mercury and lead are poured into the balls, coating the concave sides, and left to cool again. The balls are then broken into pieces, shaped, and stuck onto surfaces in different patterns, using a mixture of lime and marble powder as adhesive. The effect leaves you spellbound.

Surrounding wall niches also have Thekri work in a floral pattern. In the centre of the room is a recessed table in which candles are set. When lit, a spectacular effect is created by the flickering shadows.

The Candle Room offers views of a cascading terraced garden, flanked by stone column torches, which at night create dancing flames on the water. The cascade culminates in a handcrafted bronze sun, which is the royal insignia of Mewar.
Cascading garden culminates with the royal insignia of Mewar

The reflecting pools and fountains play an important part in the overall design. These impart different ambiences at various times of the day and night, augmented by the soothing sound of trickling or cascading water.

Udaivilas has two restaurants - Suryamahal, the main dining room, and Udaimahal, the specialty Indian restaurant. The domes over Suryamahal recreate the day sky, while those over Udaimahal represent the night sky and the Udaipur cityscape. The vibrancy and richness of Indian and Rajasthani culture are reflected in the blue, green and gold colour scheme.

Suryamahal is the perfect setting for enjoying the special menu that has been developed following meticulous research in the traditional royal kitchens of Rajasthan. Udaimahal is open only for dinner and serves traditional Rajasthani and North Indian cuisine. The courtyard adjoining the restaurants is the perfect setting for al fresco dining. Gas torches cast a sense of drama over live performances of music and dance in the evenings.
Soak in the tranquil ambience at the Oberoi Spa

The corridors leading to the guest rooms have 450 stone columns, each individually hand crafted. Many are finished with ghutai, a technique, which like Thekri, is unique to the region. Craftsmen are reluctant to share details of the process, but it is generally known that various kinds of stone are ground and mixed with egg white and tamarind. The final finish is naturally creamy, ivory-like and glows with a special luminosity. It takes a craftsman a month to make a single column and the smooth stucco, made by mixing lime mortar with lime plaster and crushed marble, takes a year to 'cure'.

The Udaivilas has 87 bedrooms, 63 Deluxe, 19 Superior Deluxe, 4 Deluxe Suites and 1 Kohinoor Suite. The Kohinoor Suite features two bedrooms, a living room with working fireplaces, and a private swimming pool overlooking the City Palace, Lake Pichola and the Aravalli mountain range. The Superior Deluxe Rooms have access to a semi-private infinity edge swimming pool off a patio. The Deluxe Rooms are over 600 sq ft each, featuring a seating area and balcony.
The Moghul Suite

Luxurious white marble bathrooms, with Victorian style bathtubs, overlook a private courtyard. All rooms feature a personal bar, tea and coffee maker, telephone with data port, satellite television, compact disc and digital video player and an electronic safe.

Local artisans fashioned the furnishings that grace the light and airy sitting areas and comfortable bedrooms. The interiors are beautifully appointed, with exclusively designed furniture, hand knotted carpets and fine Indian works of art. The wide use of rich fabrics and silk drapes in the rooms remind guests of the colourful art and royalty of Rajasthan.

All the rooms are not only elegantly decorated but are also equipped with modern facilities.

Once you're settled in, recover from your travel with a visit to the Oberoi Spa by Banyan Tree. Relax with a massage, rejuvenate with a facial, or simply soak in a spa hot tub. Here too, the dome represents the day sky to create a fresh, tranquil ambience. Restful private therapy suites and rooms for beauty treatments have been designed to provide an environment ideal for rejuvenation and relaxation. Still feeling restless? You'll love the fitness center, equipped with state of the art cardiovascular and strength training equipment.

Two original structures on the property have been restored - Bada Mahal and Chhota Mahal. An old caretaker has been looking after these buildings for over thirty years. A small coliseum adjoins Bada Mahal, once used by the royals to view tiger and wild boar fights. A twenty-acre conservatory houses many spotted deer, wild boar and peacocks. Surrounded by extensive landscaped gardens, the hotel offers superb walking routes through its exotic, natural surroundings with excellent views over the azure waters of the Lake Pichola.

The resort and its facilities have been evolved with care, retaining as much of the existing topography as possible. Landscape consultant Bill Bensley believes that the gardens will blossom into a tapestry of hidden walkways and avenues that continually surprise and delight, giving each guest a magical experience. The garden paths lead you to exotic plants, and hideaways. It is ideal for long walks among beautiful gardens and the splendid forest of exotic plants. The total effect at Udaivilas is an aura of elegance and understated luxury.

We use them for all forms of communication: correspondence, business transactions, signatures. A fine pen enhances the writing experience and makes a definitive statement about the writer. Variety is vital to a life of luxury, an abundance of classic names and innovative styles. Indulge in close-up of distinctive writing instruments, masterful presentations of timekeeping design, and leathers of consummate, dependable craftsmanship are here. A look at pens suitable for the novice, the curious minded, the collector.

Let other pens dwell with guilt and misery

A major international manufacturer of fine writing instruments and more, the A.T. Cross Company has been in business for more than 150 years. During that time Cross has re-invented writing instruments, combining design ingenuity with jewelry-quality craftsmanship. They were America's first manufacturer of quality writing instruments, they've been making pens people use, depend upon, and enjoy, for a long time. Richard Cross, a highly skilled pen and pencil maker, founded the company in 1846, and shared the business with his son, Alonzo Townsend Cross. The quality of their pens is evidenced by their popularity. Located in Lincoln, Cross continues to make products of great value, one at a time and by hand, just as Richard Cross did.

Montblanc has been known for generations as a maker of sophisticated, high-quality writing instruments. Founded by a Hamburg stationer in 1906, the company began as the Simplo Filler Pen company in 1908, then adopted the Montblanc trademark three years later. As the highest peak in western Europe, Montblanc really does belong to the whole continent. Its many glaciers are rendered in the company's trademark white star found on all of their luxuries. Since its inception the company has been producing some of the world's most well-known writing instruments and added extensively to the world of luxury with new lines of leather goods, eyewear, desk accessories, jewelry, and fragrance. As a premier purveyor of exclusive products, they reflect today's demands for quality design, tradition, and master craftsmanship.

Founded in Florence, Italy, in 1988, Visconti is the brainchild of Dante Del Vecchio and Luigi Poli, two innovative and creative-minded fountain pen collectors. Together, they have helped reintroduce celluloid pens with a team of talented artisans whose varied experience and love of fountain pens have renewed the craft of celluloid. Visconti is now the largest celluloid pen factory worldwide and its production has widened to include materials such as ebonite, acrylic, Lucite, Bakelite, and ivory. Always interested in technical solutions, Visconti has brought back the crescent filler, and patented double reservoir power filler as well as a traveling ink pot--perfect for filling your pen without messy ink spills on clothes or luggage. Visconti is considered to be one of the most creative companies for fresh designs, technical innovations, and collectible instruments both traditional and contemporary. Choose one and discover for yourself: Visconti is the writing instrument elevated to the realm of art.

World Lux began as a small fountain pen repair company in 1973. Over 30 years later, they've earned their reputation as premier fine writing specialists for the Northwest and beyond. Their multiple venues include a beautifully-designed website, a glossy, full color coffee table catalog, and an elegant showroom in downtown Seattle. Spend some time with them and you'll soon agree that "Some luxuries are essential." They offer their own line of fully functional and aesthetically pleasing writing "essentials" for enjoyment.

MK Anand's total lack of pretense is striking, both in his personality and in the way he approaches life. He has on his table 'World's Greatest Boss' engraved on a cup.

Background
My father was in the central government and regular transfers across the country were part and parcel of my growing years. As an infant, I was in Delhi, then Kanpur where one really did not see the age limit before being enrolled in school. In all, I have been to 13 schools, but coped being a Kendriya Vidyalaya product as their syllabus is the same all over the country. I studied in Kerala from the second to the tenth standard.

Soon after that, my father was transferred to Mumbai in 1981, and I completed my graduation, post graduation and MBA in Mumbai. I am the oldest among three sons. One of my siblings is in the Central Excise in Bangalore and the other manages his business of executive placement consultancy services in Mumbai. My wife, Smita, was also working in media till very recently. My father has now retired and my parents stay with me.

College days
I loved zoology in college, but then realized that genetics is what I wanted to study further. Jawaharlal Nehru University (Delhi) was the only place to do an MSc in biotechnology and their admissions was two months before my results so losing a year was inevitable. To bridge that year, I applied for MSc and got selected by Khalsa College, but subjects like endocrinology were not appealing.

Just then we heard of MSc in Fisheries Management from Mumbai University at the Central Institute of Fisheries at Versova, Mumbai. I took it up in the sense of a stop gap to study biotechnology a year later, but it appealed to me as a long term profession and I ended up completing the two years course.

My dad was liberal and gave me the freedom to pursue my choice of career. The only time, he showed keenness was for me to do an MBA. Though at his insistence, I did appear for the entrance exam at S P Jain Institute and made it to the second list but, ended up convincing him that an MBA was not necessary, and took up a job instead.
MK Anand with his wife Smita

I met Smita in college when studying for BSc. My rush to get a job was centered on getting married as I feared her family would pack her off somewhere. She hails from a Gujarati Jain family. We were so very young when we got married in 1991. I have two children, my older son Aditya is 14 years and my daughter Priyanka is a year and three months old. Smita worked for a magazine for seven years and was practically handling the business in the last three years and left, feeling she could use it in a larger organisation.

When we got married, Smita tried to converse in Malayalam with us but my younger brothers would take off on her and she gave up! We understand each other's languages but do not speak it.

Professional life
My first job was with the pharmaceutical company Cynamide and it was a sales job. I did not like it and realised soon enough that an MBA was necessary. I did an MBA (Human Resources) from Narsee Monjee in 1989.

I started working in production as a management trainee at Rallis India Ltd., but watching the fish processing was really tiresome and weird. Someone referred me to an ad sales position for Delhi Press. I took it up and just coasted along as, not really sure if it was my line. But once in, I decided I may as well go to the best companies in India.

I prepared separate resumes for The Times of India, Business India, Malayalam Manorama, Readers Digest and two large agencies. In 1990, I first went to the Times group and fortunately got the job and did not have to use the remaining resumes. I was the first development executive for classifieds in the Times of India.

I quit after three years and moved to Citibank as an assistant manager. They had just launched Citiphone banking. This job did not suit my appetite and soon became very mundane and boring. I started looking for a change. My boss at Times, Kanta Advani put me on to Pradeep Guha and I rejoined Times. When Kanta moved on to television, I was put in charge of the classifieds department. From then to now, I have contributed in my own small way to the group and launched many properties. My move to television has had its own learning graph.

I never take papers home and prefer sitting up late. Till recently, I have never worked on Saturdays and Sundays. My father is content with the way my life has taken its course. Though he did express a desire for me to join the IAS; for him The Times is akin to the Government of India.

I always consider a role in a company as something what one defines and not what the company defines for one. Getting a designation in an environment is like getting yourself in a room. It is like getting into a train, once in, whether you get a seat, keep standing or get pushed around is entirely up to you. In any job, one takes calls based on one's sheer knowledge and guts.

More degrees to keep up with the times...
As my basic education is not in the field that I work in, I decided to do a PhD in Media Economics from Narsee Monjee. This is not to further my career. It's been a year now and I have finished the basic course covering six subjects and now all that remains is publishing two papers in recognised journals and a few teaching assignments. People always mistake me as a professor and always ask, "How do I sell?" I tell them, "I really cannot sell, it is my team that sells."

We are long living creatures and after some time, we won't be relevant to commercial enterprises, so we should keep updating ourselves for the future. In the future, I may take up an academic or consultancy based profession, this will be useful then.

Unlike earlier times, where 60 was the given age to be retired, it will be a big thing if I can keep a job till 45 years of age today. One can really not predict one's health, family, adaptation to new media, market, etc., so in essence we are really underpaid today and unsure of our future.

Calm and composed
I am very calm and do not get stressed easily. My whole agenda is to put everything in order and let people work. I take off in the middle of the day, faff around with friends and mostly start work towards post lunch. Then working till midnight and beyond is not a problem. I make up for it by coming late and that is a huge destresser. I avoid peak hour traffic and leave from my residence in Juhu after 9 am. Being called in early is a sure way to give me stress. I love to drive. I currently drive a Scorpio and my dream vehicle is a Mercedes.

This and that...
Till a few years ago, I did not wear a watch. But, as I am growing older, I do tend to make insecure purchases to keep up with the times. I have become brand conscious and shop for all my stuff.

I am a 'one helping' eater unless it is biryani made by my mother. I love the food at Indigo and the variety offered at the restaurants at JW Marriot.

Saying that reading is a hobby is clich?d as it is a requirement in any field. I am famous for buying books and not reading them. The only books that interest me are those on History and Philosophy.

If somebody cares to listen, I sing in Hindi and Malayalam. My wife sings too and on occasions we end up singing together. Watching my father play the bulbul, I have learnt to play the keyboard.

I collect cassettes and CDs of sufi qawalis. I have picked up some excellent songs from outside mosques at various places. I listen to Carnatic music and maestros like Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar, etc. I unfortunately cannot lip sync on English songs much to the amusement of my son and my brothers. It may stem from the fact that at an age when I had to pick up these, we had no television at home.

Movies
MK Anand with his daughter

I am not an avid movie watcher. I recently went to Forum (Bangalore) and picked up over 30 Malayalam VCDs. I realise, I watch Malayalam films because I see Kerala in them. As long as I see a nice village with a teashop, I am happy. My wife is fed up with me as I prefer to stay home on holidays. She has started going to the theatres with my son. I usually end up going mostly when my parents accompany us. I recently saw Krissh. But, sitting home drinking chai and eating pakoras is what makes me most happy.

Once I reach home, I am a complete homebody and when I am out, I am totally consumed by work. It's inertia of motion: Any motion, which is in motion or at rest, stays there.

I am the oldest grandchild and the eldest son on both sides of the family and there is a major MK Anand iconification in my family. My son often says that he is fed up hearing stories about how good I am. But, I am chilled out as far as his performance in school goes, much to my wife's dismay. I was not a topper student and don't expect the same of him.

Travel
As part of Times Response, I have traveled to many destinations for their annual conferences since 1995. Smita has also traveled extensively on her job and Aditya and I have joined her on two occasions. Kerala is a regular haunt and my best holiday so far has been a drive there with Smita, Aditya and my brothers - Anish and Ajay. We drove from Mumbai to Kerala, stopping at Pune, Kohlapur, Bangalore, Mysore, Vyanad in to Calicut and back via Mangalore and Goa. We would take a stop at unknown places to spend the night. I would love to do it again.

My wife does complain that we don't travel and in fact, since the birth of my daughter who was 12 weeks premature, we really have not been out together. Though, my son and I have just returned from an amazing week long African safari.

MK Anand's total lack of pretense is striking, both in his personality and in the way he approaches life. He has on his table 'World's Greatest Boss' engraved on a cup.

Background
My father was in the central government and regular transfers across the country were part and parcel of my growing years. As an infant, I was in Delhi, then Kanpur where one really did not see the age limit before being enrolled in school. In all, I have been to 13 schools, but coped being a Kendriya Vidyalaya product as their syllabus is the same all over the country. I studied in Kerala from the second to the tenth standard.

Soon after that, my father was transferred to Mumbai in 1981, and I completed my graduation, post graduation and MBA in Mumbai. I am the oldest among three sons. One of my siblings is in the Central Excise in Bangalore and the other manages his business of executive placement consultancy services in Mumbai. My wife, Smita, was also working in media till very recently. My father has now retired and my parents stay with me.

College days
I loved zoology in college, but then realized that genetics is what I wanted to study further. Jawaharlal Nehru University (Delhi) was the only place to do an MSc in biotechnology and their admissions was two months before my results so losing a year was inevitable. To bridge that year, I applied for MSc and got selected by Khalsa College, but subjects like endocrinology were not appealing.

Just then we heard of MSc in Fisheries Management from Mumbai University at the Central Institute of Fisheries at Versova, Mumbai. I took it up in the sense of a stop gap to study biotechnology a year later, but it appealed to me as a long term profession and I ended up completing the two years course.

My dad was liberal and gave me the freedom to pursue my choice of career. The only time, he showed keenness was for me to do an MBA. Though at his insistence, I did appear for the entrance exam at S P Jain Institute and made it to the second list but, ended up convincing him that an MBA was not necessary, and took up a job instead.
MK Anand with his wife Smita

I met Smita in college when studying for BSc. My rush to get a job was centered on getting married as I feared her family would pack her off somewhere. She hails from a Gujarati Jain family. We were so very young when we got married in 1991. I have two children, my older son Aditya is 14 years and my daughter Priyanka is a year and three months old. Smita worked for a magazine for seven years and was practically handling the business in the last three years and left, feeling she could use it in a larger organisation.

When we got married, Smita tried to converse in Malayalam with us but my younger brothers would take off on her and she gave up! We understand each other's languages but do not speak it.

Professional life
My first job was with the pharmaceutical company Cynamide and it was a sales job. I did not like it and realised soon enough that an MBA was necessary. I did an MBA (Human Resources) from Narsee Monjee in 1989.

I started working in production as a management trainee at Rallis India Ltd., but watching the fish processing was really tiresome and weird. Someone referred me to an ad sales position for Delhi Press. I took it up and just coasted along as, not really sure if it was my line. But once in, I decided I may as well go to the best companies in India.

I prepared separate resumes for The Times of India, Business India, Malayalam Manorama, Readers Digest and two large agencies. In 1990, I first went to the Times group and fortunately got the job and did not have to use the remaining resumes. I was the first development executive for classifieds in the Times of India.

I quit after three years and moved to Citibank as an assistant manager. They had just launched Citiphone banking. This job did not suit my appetite and soon became very mundane and boring. I started looking for a change. My boss at Times, Kanta Advani put me on to Pradeep Guha and I rejoined Times. When Kanta moved on to television, I was put in charge of the classifieds department. From then to now, I have contributed in my own small way to the group and launched many properties. My move to television has had its own learning graph.

I never take papers home and prefer sitting up late. Till recently, I have never worked on Saturdays and Sundays. My father is content with the way my life has taken its course. Though he did express a desire for me to join the IAS; for him The Times is akin to the Government of India.

I always consider a role in a company as something what one defines and not what the company defines for one. Getting a designation in an environment is like getting yourself in a room. It is like getting into a train, once in, whether you get a seat, keep standing or get pushed around is entirely up to you. In any job, one takes calls based on one's sheer knowledge and guts.

More degrees to keep up with the times...
As my basic education is not in the field that I work in, I decided to do a PhD in Media Economics from Narsee Monjee. This is not to further my career. It's been a year now and I have finished the basic course covering six subjects and now all that remains is publishing two papers in recognised journals and a few teaching assignments. People always mistake me as a professor and always ask, "How do I sell?" I tell them, "I really cannot sell, it is my team that sells."

We are long living creatures and after some time, we won't be relevant to commercial enterprises, so we should keep updating ourselves for the future. In the future, I may take up an academic or consultancy based profession, this will be useful then.

Unlike earlier times, where 60 was the given age to be retired, it will be a big thing if I can keep a job till 45 years of age today. One can really not predict one's health, family, adaptation to new media, market, etc., so in essence we are really underpaid today and unsure of our future.

Calm and composed
I am very calm and do not get stressed easily. My whole agenda is to put everything in order and let people work. I take off in the middle of the day, faff around with friends and mostly start work towards post lunch. Then working till midnight and beyond is not a problem. I make up for it by coming late and that is a huge destresser. I avoid peak hour traffic and leave from my residence in Juhu after 9 am. Being called in early is a sure way to give me stress. I love to drive. I currently drive a Scorpio and my dream vehicle is a Mercedes.

This and that...
Till a few years ago, I did not wear a watch. But, as I am growing older, I do tend to make insecure purchases to keep up with the times. I have become brand conscious and shop for all my stuff.

I am a 'one helping' eater unless it is biryani made by my mother. I love the food at Indigo and the variety offered at the restaurants at JW Marriot.

Saying that reading is a hobby is clich?d as it is a requirement in any field. I am famous for buying books and not reading them. The only books that interest me are those on History and Philosophy.

If somebody cares to listen, I sing in Hindi and Malayalam. My wife sings too and on occasions we end up singing together. Watching my father play the bulbul, I have learnt to play the keyboard.

I collect cassettes and CDs of sufi qawalis. I have picked up some excellent songs from outside mosques at various places. I listen to Carnatic music and maestros like Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar, etc. I unfortunately cannot lip sync on English songs much to the amusement of my son and my brothers. It may stem from the fact that at an age when I had to pick up these, we had no television at home.

Movies
MK Anand with his daughter

I am not an avid movie watcher. I recently went to Forum (Bangalore) and picked up over 30 Malayalam VCDs. I realise, I watch Malayalam films because I see Kerala in them. As long as I see a nice village with a teashop, I am happy. My wife is fed up with me as I prefer to stay home on holidays. She has started going to the theatres with my son. I usually end up going mostly when my parents accompany us. I recently saw Krissh. But, sitting home drinking chai and eating pakoras is what makes me most happy.

Once I reach home, I am a complete homebody and when I am out, I am totally consumed by work. It's inertia of motion: Any motion, which is in motion or at rest, stays there.

I am the oldest grandchild and the eldest son on both sides of the family and there is a major MK Anand iconification in my family. My son often says that he is fed up hearing stories about how good I am. But, I am chilled out as far as his performance in school goes, much to my wife's dismay. I was not a topper student and don't expect the same of him.

Travel
As part of Times Response, I have traveled to many destinations for their annual conferences since 1995. Smita has also traveled extensively on her job and Aditya and I have joined her on two occasions. Kerala is a regular haunt and my best holiday so far has been a drive there with Smita, Aditya and my brothers - Anish and Ajay. We drove from Mumbai to Kerala, stopping at Pune, Kohlapur, Bangalore, Mysore, Vyanad in to Calicut and back via Mangalore and Goa. We would take a stop at unknown places to spend the night. I would love to do it again.

My wife does complain that we don't travel and in fact, since the birth of my daughter who was 12 weeks premature, we really have not been out together. Though, my son and I have just returned from an amazing week long African safari.

TV shows
I watch movies on The History Channel, National Geographic Channel and Discovery. If I ever happen to see any soap by mistake, my mind is always keyed up thinking how much unnecessary expenditure is incurred when the camera pans without moving for three-four minutes, the cost of the sets, etc. I also tend to break in to a sweat each time an ad break comes on TV and always reach out to SMS my sales head as to why a particular ad has not appeared!

I watch movies on The History Channel, National Geographic Channel and Discovery. If I ever happen to see any soap by mistake, my mind is always keyed up thinking how much unnecessary expenditure is incurred when the camera pans without moving for three-four minutes, the cost of the sets, etc. I also tend to break in to a sweat each time an ad break comes on TV and always reach out to SMS my sales head as to why a particular ad has not appeared!

Checkmate! No, we're not playing that board game here! In this edition of Collector's Item, we're talking about HBO South Asia country manager Shruti Bajpai and her husband Nestle India vice president dairy business Mayank Trivedi's chess sets' collection.
Shruti Bajpai

While the couple already boasts of 12 chess sets from various countries across the globe, they have just added two more from Turkey (where Shruti and Mayank are currently holidaying).

Speaking to Exec Life from Turkey, an animated Shruti says, "We have just added the 13th and 14th chess set to our collection. Turkey is famous for Mother of Pearl and also for Mosaics. We were keen to buy a chess set that was made of either of these and luckily we found both."
A Mother of Pearls Chess set from Turkey

They started their collection three years back when Mayank was transferred to Switzerland. While it was he who initiated this collection, Shruti too started sharing his passion for chess sets within no time.

Such is their passion for collecting chess sets that the first thing on their agenda while visiting a new country, is to go on a chess set selection expedition! "For us the priority is to have a chess set from a country that we have visited. It is very easy to ask friends to bring you back chess sets from where ever they are going but we don't like to do that. Secondly, it has to have something that symbolises the country the chess set is from and it has to have typical characteristics of that country and its flavor," says Shruti.
A chess set from Egypt

Shruti and Mayank have to pick a set from each country they visit and hence their home in Delhi sports a special area that displays their collection from countries like Equador, Egypt, Korea, Greece, Germany, Kenya to name a few. This special corner in their home is diligently looked after by Mayank, who is very possessive of the collection. Says Shruti, "Mayank has specially designed and constructed this corner in our house where we display the chess sets. The display has been set according to a pattern and no one is allowed to touch the pieces."

With the help of a small vacuum cleaner, the couple takes pains to clean their chess sets to make sure that dust is taken out of every nook and corner of each and every piece. While their collections sports sets made of different material like wood, ceramic, metal etc; each needs a different cleanser. "While we clean most of them with a soft cloth, there are some pieces that are made of metal and hence they require regular shining," says Shruti.
A chess set from Greece

While most of the chess sets are collected by them on their numerous trip abroad, there are a couple of sets that have been gifted to the couple by family and friends.

Of course, the hazards of picking up a fake piece or a 'Made in China' piece, when abroad are always there. To avoid being conned, Shruti and Mayank make sure that they do their research and also ask reliable people who know about the country's heritage to find out what they should be looking for in a chess set. "We are very careful to pick up the right piece.

Since we have been doing this for the last three years, we can now make out a piece that is a Chinese make. We make sure that we ask around for the authenticity of what we are buying to avoid being duped," she says.

A passion for traveling coupled with an interest in chess is what made them start their collection. While the traveling continues, the board game has now just become a prized collection of theirs, with the couple seldom getting down to playing the game itself. "While we used to play chess a lot earlier, now it has become more of a passion of collecting the sets. We don't sit to play anymore," informs Shruti.
Swaroski chess set: Ultimate Collector's Item for Shruti & Mayank

Since the couple is always on the lookout for authentic pieces, what is the kind of money that they spend on buying chess sets? "Since this is not "art" in the strict sense of the term, the monies are affordable! On an average, a chess sets costs anywhere between $ 100 - $ 300. We are also not brand conscious when it comes to these sets. In fact, we have some really elegant yet cheap sets," says Shruti.

While the collections increases year after year, one luxury that Shruti wants to treat herself and her hubby to in the near future is the Swaroski chess that she laid her eyes on some time back!

A product of the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management and the London School of Economics, Sita Laxmi Narayan Swamy, Senior vice president, network marketing, Zee Telefilms Ltd always lived life on her own terms. A multifaceted personality with keen interests in a variety of domains like art, painting, reading and writing, this lady is a pleasure to talk to. Her enthusiasm, zest for life and never-say-die attitude is contagious.

My tryst with books
Her tryst with books began when, tired of moving from one town to another due to her father's transferable army job, she went and complained to him that just when she was beginning to settle down in one place and make new friends... it was time to move and pick up the pieces of her life all over again. As a six-year-old, she went and cried to him, "This is not fair papa. Every two years we have to move and I spend so much time making friends, only to leave them behind. That's when her father picked up a book, handed it to her and said, "From today, this is going to be your best friend."

"I think I took him rather literally (thankfully)," she says.

And the rest as they say is history. Books have become an integral part of Zee Telefilms senior vice president network marketing Sita Laxmi Narayan Swami's life and she boasts of a mammoth collection... a passion which has been lovingly nurtured over the years.

As a child, when she was grounded by her parents for any mischief, they realised that barring her from meals or playing with friends didn't mean a thing to Sita. However, it didn't take them long to find her Achilles' heel --- "No books for you," her mother then began saying! And that worked!!!

"I really feel that books are a great way to travel to places that you've never been to. They are a great way to listen to points of views of people you may never meet. Books also help a person who wants to keep learning - not just management fundas - but about human nature and life. They really elevate and liberate you and actually make you evolve. For me, life would be a lot less enriching without books," she says with obvious passion.

Being in the media a common complaint heard is - "I don't get the time to read!" But for Sita that doesn't hold true... more so because she makes the time to read! "I don't have to push myself to do it. I want to find the time to read. So I can easily trade a Saturday night outing for a book," she says.

My favourite books

There are three books that have shaped her into the person she is today. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exup?ry. "It's about a little Prince who comes to Earth from a different planet. It's a story about him recounting his space-travelling experiences to a pilot he meets in the Sahara. It is also slightly metaphysical and spiritual as well in the sense that while he is talking about very real experiences, you keep reflecting and feeling that what was being said was so true about human beings as well," says Sita.

One line from the book that Sita has kept in her heart and lived by is - "'You can only see things clearly with your heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye". "It's very beautiful and profound but it's true. What is obvious is sometimes not as important as you think and one needs to take out time and the energy to look beyond the obvious even at a day-to-day level," says Sita.

The other book I really like is Mister God, This Is Anna written by Fynn. "It's a beautiful book about this little girl from the street who has miraculously entered this big household. It revolves around her thoughts and philosophies and how it changes their lives."

The third one, a best seller that almost everyone has read, is The Alchemist by Paulo Cohelo. "Having said that, I have also read a lot of Paulo Cohelo's lesser known books like Veronica Decides To Die and By The River Piedra, I Sat Down And Cried," she says.

"When growing up, you tend to read books like The Fountainhead and it does leave an impact on you," she adds.
 

Fancy books on Physics too

"I also tend to read a lot of books on Physics and science because I like to read a lot about time and space," she says. Books by Stephen Hawkins like A Brief History of Time and also some on philosophy like The Gift of Now by Susan Squellati Florence have also caught her fancy.

"I've also enjoyed reading The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche," she says.

Love for Literature and poetry

She also harbours a special love for literature and dotes on books by W Somerset Maugham, DH Lawrence and shorts stories by O Henry.

"Now this may come as a surprise and a lot of people don't know this but I also read a lot of poetry. My favourite poet is TS Elliot. Of course, in India authors like Vikram Seth, Amrita Pritam and Gluzar," says Sita.

"I could go on and on for more than three hours on this and I'm sure by the end of it I'll end up recommending some books to you!" she laughs.
 

Management books

"I don't like the term management books because it makes them sound boring but of the books I really liked are Life After The 30 Second Spot by Joseph Jaffe. I love Tom Peters especially his latest book Re-imagine! and I loved Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner," she says.

Another book Sita enjoyed reading was Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands by Kevin Roberts and Business is Unusual by Anita Roddick, where the author talks about why she started Body Shop. "These books also go into corporate social responsibility. Of course you are creating products for the consumer and hoping to reap revenues out of it, but it delves into how you need to give back to the world, what you have got from it."

Her interest in books is surely a varied one. "In fact, when I go to a bookshop, the book calls out to me. I'm not much for reading reviews before buying the book. So most often I've read a book long before it has been declared a bestseller," she says.

Weekly itch to buy books
Sita frequently visits book stores since she feels the urge to buy books almost every week. "Every room in my house is filled with books. There isn't a nook or corner left in my house where books are not there since I possess many thousands of them," she says.

So if you want to catch Sita over the weekend, hit the bookstores and not some fancy club!

By Hetal Adesara