KOLKATA // Ayan Mitra stepped into the cavernous warehouse of one of Kolkata's last remaining auction houses with his eye on a pair of hand-painted Chinese vases. He picked up the 30-centimetre tall vessels, examined their gold-painted handles and put them down to circle the venue.
He came back to the dark blue vases. They reminded him of his childhood.
Mr Mitra, 34, the general manager of a hotel and a first-time bidder brought along his wife, Alila Ao, 29, and daughter, Leah, two, to the Russell Exchange on a recent Sunday afternoon.
The Mitras are a part of India's young, upper-class looking for one-of-a-kind pieces to show in their homes. Their growing incomes have spurred a revival in the city's rich history of auction houses. From vases and paintings to furniture, the afternoon auction comes alive with smartly dressed men and women rifling through dust-covered artefacts, hoping to outbid each other for a piece of forgotten glory.
Mr Mitra was willing to bid as much as it took to bring home the vases that reminded him of a set in his grandfather's home.
"I always coveted them," said Mr Mitra. "But with time, they were lost."
The tag on the vases indicted the bidding would start at 5,000 rupees (Dh330) each. He did not flinch.
"I could go higher. I am here to bid. I want to find the vases a better home," Mr Mitra said, adding that he was looking for something unique for his flat in Kolkata.
"I am tired of these mass-produced pieces," he said. "I want my guests to be impressed when they walk into my home, when they see these vases. They will give added value to my house when I display them in my curio cabinet."
Auction houses of Kolkata have been a long-standing tradition, with Sundays dedicated to those who like to scrounge through the vintage to find something valuable.
With the arrival of the East India company in 1690, Kolkata became the centre of trade and imports and exports. For 200 years, till 1911, Kolkata (then called Calcutta) served as the capital of British India. During this time, the British made auctioneering, a hobby, fashionable. Even after the British moved their capital to Delhi, the culture of auction houses remained.
"Every Sunday, they were regulars at the auction. The British would come and sit in rows and rows of chairs. Actors and wealthy businessmen would weave in and out too," said Anwer Saleem, whose father established the Russell Exchange in 1940.
After India's independence from the British rule in 1947, the culture continued with the royalty of erstwhile kingdoms and wealthy business patrons of the city who continued to follow British norms.
However in the 1980s poor business forced eight of the city's 11 auction houses to close.
The remaining three, all next to each other on Russell Street, however, have recently noticed an upswing in business. There has been a noticeable difference in the past three years, said Mr Saleem, who runs the Russell Exchange house with his brother, Arshad Salim, who spell his surname differently than his brother, and sister, Sarfaraz Javed.
"They want to re-create the atmosphere of the old," Mr Saleem said. "They are shunning mass-produced, ready-made pieces because now people like to show off a nice piece of furniture. They realise it is an investment. There is hereditary value."
The highest bidders are "young people", said Mr Saleem, including the wives of executives because "they hold the purse strings", the rich and their children.
There is also the "nouveau riche", said Mr Saleem, who "have money but they are eager to show they have old money".
"In an auction, most of the time, ego comes in. When they enjoy the thrill of the auction, they get carried away and buy things they didn't even think they wanted to buy. That's how we make our commission."
Jai Krishna, 32, runs a business consultancy firm. Dressed in a blue-and-white striped Lacoste shirt and shorts, he had has his eye on three lots that day and a budget of 50,000 rupees for a dining room table.
"I have moved to a new house and I need new furniture," Mr Krishna said. "I mean, I need furniture that is made of good quality wood, that will make a statement."
Mr Krishna placed the winning 15,000-rupee bid on four-poster wooden bed made of Burmese teak wood. He also got the table.
"These are not pieces to use and throw away," he said.
Most of the paintings, furniture, chandeliers, silverware and statues that end up at the Russell Exchange are come from estates of people who have died.
"Families can't maintain bigger homes anymore," said Ms Javed, who is also an auctioneer at the auction house. "And flats these days cannot accommodate such big pieces of furniture. The families want to sell the old stuff. They send them here."
For this, Indranil Das, 42, is grateful. A tea broker by trade, he is a self described "regular collector". Mr Das sits by the entrance of the auction house, watching and waiting for the final lot of ceramics to go under the hammer. Two months ago, he paid 4,000 rupees for a set of Dutch porcelain wall plates. He collects wall plates, porcelain figures and small art deco pieces to display in his home.
"I collect what suits me," Mr Das said. "And I have been doing this since before being a collector became trendy."
sbhattacharya@thenational.ae
Results
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Profile of Foodics
Founders: Ahmad AlZaini and Mosab AlOthmani
Based: Riyadh
Sector: Software
Employees: 150
Amount raised: $8m through seed and Series A - Series B raise ongoing
Funders: Raed Advanced Investment Co, Al-Riyadh Al Walid Investment Co, 500 Falcons, SWM Investment, AlShoaibah SPV, Faith Capital, Technology Investments Co, Savour Holding, Future Resources, Derayah Custody Co.
Three ways to limit your social media use
Clinical psychologist, Dr Saliha Afridi at The Lighthouse Arabia suggests three easy things you can do every day to cut back on the time you spend online.
1. Put the social media app in a folder on the second or third screen of your phone so it has to remain a conscious decision to open, rather than something your fingers gravitate towards without consideration.
2. Schedule a time to use social media instead of consistently throughout the day. I recommend setting aside certain times of the day or week when you upload pictures or share information.
3. Take a mental snapshot rather than a photo on your phone. Instead of sharing it with your social world, try to absorb the moment, connect with your feeling, experience the moment with all five of your senses. You will have a memory of that moment more vividly and for far longer than if you take a picture of it.
Company profile
Company name: Suraasa
Started: 2018
Founders: Rishabh Khanna, Ankit Khanna and Sahil Makker
Based: India, UAE and the UK
Industry: EdTech
Initial investment: More than $200,000 in seed funding
Confirmed%20bouts%20(more%20to%20be%20added)
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Buy farm-fresh food
The UAE is stepping up its game when it comes to platforms for local farms to show off and sell their produce.
In Dubai, visit Emirati Farmers Souq at The Pointe every Saturday from 8am to 2pm, which has produce from Al Ammar Farm, Omar Al Katri Farm, Hikarivege Vegetables, Rashed Farms and Al Khaleej Honey Trading, among others.
In Sharjah, the Aljada residential community will launch a new outdoor farmers’ market every Friday starting this weekend. Manbat will be held from 3pm to 8pm, and will host 30 farmers, local home-grown entrepreneurs and food stalls from the teams behind Badia Farms; Emirates Hydroponics Farms; Modern Organic Farm; Revolution Real; Astraea Farms; and Al Khaleej Food.
In Abu Dhabi, order farm produce from Food Crowd, an online grocery platform that supplies fresh and organic ingredients directly from farms such as Emirates Bio Farm, TFC, Armela Farms and mother company Al Dahra.
The biog
Name: Dhabia Khalifa AlQubaisi
Age: 23
How she spends spare time: Playing with cats at the clinic and feeding them
Inspiration: My father. He’s a hard working man who has been through a lot to provide us with everything we need
Favourite book: Attitude, emotions and the psychology of cats by Dr Nicholes Dodman
Favourit film: 101 Dalmatians - it remind me of my childhood and began my love of dogs
Word of advice: By being patient, good things will come and by staying positive you’ll have the will to continue to love what you're doing
Company%20Profile
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The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Gertrude Bell's life in focus
A feature film
At one point, two feature films were in the works, but only German director Werner Herzog’s project starring Nicole Kidman would be made. While there were high hopes he would do a worthy job of directing the biopic, when Queen of the Desert arrived in 2015 it was a disappointment. Critics panned the film, in which Herzog largely glossed over Bell’s political work in favour of her ill-fated romances.
A documentary
A project that did do justice to Bell arrived the next year: Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum’s Letters from Baghdad: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Gertrude Bell. Drawing on more than 1,000 pieces of archival footage, 1,700 documents and 1,600 letters, the filmmakers painstakingly pieced together a compelling narrative that managed to convey both the depth of Bell’s experience and her tortured love life.
Books, letters and archives
Two biographies have been written about Bell, and both are worth reading: Georgina Howell’s 2006 book Queen of the Desert and Janet Wallach’s 1996 effort Desert Queen. Bell published several books documenting her travels and there are also several volumes of her letters, although they are hard to find in print. Original documents are housed at the Gertrude Bell Archive at the University of Newcastle, which has an online catalogue.
The biog
From: Upper Egypt
Age: 78
Family: a daughter in Egypt; a son in Dubai and his wife, Nabila
Favourite Abu Dhabi activity: walking near to Emirates Palace
Favourite building in Abu Dhabi: Emirates Palace
Company%20Profile
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The%20specs
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The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
Company%20Profile
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Super 30
Produced: Sajid Nadiadwala and Phantom Productions
Directed: Vikas Bahl
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Pankaj Tripathi, Aditya Srivastav, Mrinal Thakur
Rating: 3.5 /5
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
Kalra's feat
- Becomes fifth batsman to score century in U19 final
- Becomes second Indian to score century in U19 final after Unmukt Chand in 2012
- Scored 122 in youth Test on tour of England
- Bought by Delhi Daredevils for base price of two million Indian rupees (Dh115,000) in 2018 IPL auction
THE SPECS
BMW X7 xDrive 50i
Engine: 4.4-litre V8
Transmission: Eight-speed Steptronic transmission
Power: 462hp
Torque: 650Nm
Price: Dh600,000
Day 1, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Dimuth Karunaratne had batted with plenty of pluck, and no little skill, in getting to within seven runs of a first-day century. Then, while he ran what he thought was a comfortable single to mid-on, his batting partner Dinesh Chandimal opted to stay at home. The opener was run out by the length of the pitch.
Stat of the day – 1 One six was hit on Day 1. The boundary was only breached 18 times in total over the course of the 90 overs. When it did arrive, the lone six was a thing of beauty, as Niroshan Dickwella effortlessly clipped Mohammed Amir over the square-leg boundary.
The verdict Three wickets down at lunch, on a featherbed wicket having won the toss, and Sri Lanka’s fragile confidence must have been waning. Then Karunaratne and Chandimal's alliance of precisely 100 gave them a foothold in the match. Dickwella’s free-spirited strokeplay meant the Sri Lankans were handily placed at 227-4 at the close.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
More on animal trafficking
'Panga'
Directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Starring Kangana Ranaut, Richa Chadha, Jassie Gill, Yagya Bhasin, Neena Gupta
Rating: 3.5/5
The specs
Price, base / as tested Dh960,000
Engine 3.9L twin-turbo V8
Transmission Seven-speed dual-clutch automatic
Power 661hp @8,000rpm
Torque 760Nm @ 3,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined 11.4L / 100k
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Who are the Soroptimists?
The first Soroptimists club was founded in Oakland, California in 1921. The name comes from the Latin word soror which means sister, combined with optima, meaning the best.
The organisation said its name is best interpreted as ‘the best for women’.
Since then the group has grown exponentially around the world and is officially affiliated with the United Nations. The organisation also counts Queen Mathilde of Belgium among its ranks.
Company%20Profile
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
About Housecall
Date started: July 2020
Founders: Omar and Humaid Alzaabi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: HealthTech
# of staff: 10
Funding to date: Self-funded
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Transmission: ten-speed
Power: 420bhp
Torque: 624Nm
Price: Dh325,125
On sale: Now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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