Collector146;s Issue: Everything Is Precious

This Ahmedabad surgeon8217;s collection knows no bounds8212;from a Shaligramto a hollow World War II shell, it8217;s all here

A SURGEON who8217;s fascinated by a 3,000-year-old coin, toys with stone instruments dating back to 10,000 BC and poses for the camera with yet another of his acquisition8212; an ancient, oversized lock and key. There8217;s life beyond the operation the-atre and he makes the most of it.

T Naik struts around a 3,000- square-feet space where his entire col-lection, comprising about 3,500 arti-facts, are displayed. 8216;8216;I walk here for almost an hour everyday. For me, it8217;s as invigorating as taking a walk along a beach or down a mountain path,8221; he says, looking fondly at his collection of over 15 years. 8220;But it8217;s only a couple of months back that I set up this mu-seum,8221; he says. These lay in trunks and cupboards until 8220;I placed them here for art lovers to see, breathe and enjoy.

My mother Pushpa Naik encouraged me a lot.8221;

Thevariety of thecollection follows no fixed rule. There8217;s everything8212; bells, locks, sculptures, cameras, pots and vases, currency notes, stone in-struments, fossils, minerals. 8220;These have been exchanged and collected from antique collectors, given by friendswhoknewI lovecollecting, and bought from the open market. It also includesfamilyheirloom,8221;he says. 8220;Like this Shaligramammonite fos-sil revered as a holy object and symbol of Shiva I picked up recently. I bought these fossils for Rs 5 each from Pushkar; the seller didn8217;t know what he was doing,8221; Naik says. Then he goes on to showsome instruments from the Stone Age8212;BC-era flint instruments and prehistoric terracotta pieces.

While we navigate carefully through varieties of horses Chinese, Greek, made of slate and zinc, fig-urines of Jagannath and Vishnu, an-tiques including a hollow bombshell used in World War II, hand-made hukkah, samurai helmets, lamp made of camel bladder from Afghanistan, Mugha- era brass pot engraved in Ara-bic, shark teeth 100 million years old and trilobite fossils 360 million years old, fascination turns into wonder. And even more so when you see a 14- feet entwined dried creeper from Naik8217;s garden sharing space along side a weaverbird8217;s nest, above a display win-dow housing peacocks of varying kinds. The creeper and the nest, surely, are not hundreds of years old, I ask.

8220;That8217;s precisely what I wish people to understand and absorb8212;that there8217;s no claim to exclusivity. Every piece displayed here reflects love for beauty and art in all forms, from all ages,8221; he says. Numismatics also didn8217;t escape this surgeon8217;s attention. He is the founder member and vice-presi-dent of the Gujarat Coin Society. Look up the special coin section8212;apart from coins representing 170 countries carefully pasted on a huge map, there8217;s also a one anna coin of 1929, primitive money metal arrowhead, ring- shaped seals, coins and bead money of ancient India, and Thai bullet coin.

Take a step and you see Gandhiji smiling at you. Mahatma8217;s letter dated May 28, 1927, to Gulzarilal Nanda Naik8217;s grandfather is preserved carefully. There are also letters written by Mother Teresa, Bishop Tutu, C Rajagopalachari, and literatteur Umashankar Joshi. A black-and-white photograph of Parlia-ment, taken in 1962, stares at you. Naik also has a place reserved for prints of works by masters like Monet, Van Gogh, Ganguin and Da Vinci.

The exit of his museum is through a meenakari inlaid door with a 100-year-old wooden panel. In keeping with things, isn8217;t it?