Roti, kapda aur makaan are the three necessities of life on earth if you go by popular Bollywood 'isms'. The Ambanis have roti and more than enough of it going by Mukesh's and his children's girth. They've got enough kapda as is obvious by Nita Ambani's expansive wardrobe on display at IPL and sundry functions. What they didnt have was a makaan that would befit them as owned by one of the richest, most powerful and upwardly mobile family in India and the world. Well...that's being taken care of now.
I can imagine how Antilla, the world's most expensive house was created. Mukesh and Nita Ambani were sitting in their living room after dinner and talking of this and that as couples usually do. When Nita threw a glance around their surroundings and had that itchy feeling which said she still hadn't achieved what is every woman's dream. Darling, she told Mukesh, who was buried in the stock pages of the paper trying to see if brother Anil was catching up.
Hmm?
We need a bigger house.
What's wrong with this one? Mukesh's eyes did a quick tour of the digs.
To which Nita rolled her eyes...
And he reached for the checkbook...
And that was how Antilla was born.
A product of a blank check from the world's fifth richest man, the best architects, the best builders and the best interior designers that money can buy. So, applying the simple maths that I know, that should be equivalent to the most incredibly beautiful, arresting and sensational piece of architecture we have laid eyes on. Right?
Wrong. Believe me, and I'm not that bad in maths.
Antilla is a gaudy monstrosity that has no parallels in ugliness whatsoever. From which angle does it come even close to being a house and a home, beats me. I have never seen an uglier building and believe me I have seen some. It reminds me of a mean looking robot from a sci-fi film like the Transporter. A 27 floor huge mass of concrete and metal stacked together like blocks to scare the daylights out of anybody who has anything bright and beautiful in their souls. A Harry Potter dementor!
And it's not even finished yet. The final tag will be anything around two billion dollars. It has a ballroom, a home theatre for 50 people, a parking space for 168 cars (in a residence, not an office, mind you) and a disco for the Ambani children. So that the poor kids don't have to leave the house for anything. The mountain for the Mahomet. Hello? Nita, the best disco and the best video games in the world will not keep a child home. Ask any teenager. The fun is in playing truant, in going away from the parents' radar into the unknown to be independent. Why would the kids want to chill out under the Ambanis' noses? Maybe they'll have video cameras fitted so that they can keep their eye on the kids. Jesus! I pity the kids.
But the biggest joke is the building's deceptive 'green' tag. To prove that the monstrosity is environment-friendly the architects have built hanging gardens on most floors and covered the walls in specially grown foliage that gives it a green look. Right. They would have us believe that the world's largest producers of polyester fibre couldn't find a better way to save the environment than to cart water, soil, gardeners and what have you up hundreds of feet to grow some decorative plants!!
Some people can really take the world and its intelligence for a ride!
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