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An aesthetic `Maverick'
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Swimmer-son, musician-daughter and the ambience of their house give a break to the doctor couple from the drudgery of surgery and histology of pathology, says RAMESH SUSARLA.
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LIVING LEGENDS can dream of their abode transforming into a museum, but ever dreamt of living in a museum? Here is a young doctor couple, which dwells amidst a treasure of Indian art and culture -- yes their dream house is a heritage site of sorts. A confluence of antiquity and modernity is the Amarnaths' castle in Guntur, a city that does not boast of any museum worth a mention excepting for a Buddhist relic.
Meet the curator of the treasure house of Indian wooden carvings and pieces of sculpture: Surath Amarnath, an orthopaedician by profession and a connoisseur of antiquities by virtue. Planning for furniture and interiors depends on the kind of house one builds, but the Amarnaths' with a passion for collection of antique furniture and curios designed a house to suit their valued possession half-a-decade ago. Every bit of aesthetic sense has been utilised to bolster the comfort levels for day-to-day living. A robust teak wood two-winged Simhadwaram ushers visitors into the mesmerising world of Indian traditional wooden carvings that formed part of several palatial houses of Zameendari families in Godavari and Krishna districts. Dr. Amarnath's better half -- Renuka, a pathologist in the Guntur Medical College, maintains the grandeur of the interiors with a royal touch.
Chiselled to perfection, the rosewood poles add elegance to the brass-coated suspensions of the imposing Swing in the drawing hall. One can't resist heaping encomiums on the doctors for the marvellous swing. And the Ortho yikes: "Wow... is that right? You can take it, if you can!" For, he knows, none can physically carry the humungous cradle.
Tanjore paintings with gold foils adorn the walls. Bhoshanam, usually the store-house of jewellery and cash in the days of yore, takes one by `thirst'. Amused? The doctors made it into a personal bar counter with a couple of chairs. What looks to be junk to many can be a show-piece for the discerning eyes of this Kevin Spacy-lookalike.
A Rajasthani wooden stool used as leg rest by kings provides the necessary `kick' to the `bar on wheels'. Architect BMSS Kumar's salt-and-pepper beard greyed further as he did the reverse engineering to design this modern house with antique ambience. The odd corners left by the even-headed architect were filled with antique pieces by the doctor couple with the help of their relatives in East Godavari, that look tailor-made for the slot.
Dr. Amarnath's childhood fantasy to beat the speed of a train in his dream jeep - Maverick - has been summed up on the canvas by R. Vinod Chowdhary. The painting adorns the prime slot on the wall of the family's exclusive, but relatively modern living room in the first floor. Blessed with a daughter Amrita Priyanka and a son Harshavardhan, the couple take pride in being able to distinguish between bringing up and bringing up.
Rack-full of toys in kids bed-room make cold stares at the fast growing up Priyanka and Harsha in their Intermediate and 9th standard respectively. The guest room studded with the high-rise pandiri mancham decks up the guest room only to give a good night sleep to the family's most-loved visitor. A piano-type writing table, a dummy teak window serving the purpose of a dressing table in the room and the old telephone stand... oops! All are old, except for the couple and their kids. The dining room is a judicious mix of modernity and antiquity. Savouring a piece of the seasonal fish "bommidayalu", in which Dr. Renuka is an expert, at the breakfast counter or taking a quick grub at the shining dining table with a painted glass lamp shade hanging over it is what is cherished the most by the friends and favourites of Dr. Amarnath.
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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