Wednesday, May 21, 2008

the castle in the air


he is the fifth richest man in the world and he is making an audacious statement.by building the world's most expensive home at mumbai. mukesh ambani and wife nita ambani while holidaying in new york at mandarin hotel were so impressed with what they saw there that they decided to hire the same architect for their 27 storey skyscraper being built at a cost of about 2 billion dollars.

like the chinese' feng shui' we have 'vaastu' in india which has been used beneficially for channelising the energy movement in the building.six stories of parking lots for accomodating 168 cars,nine elevators,a 65 seat movie theatre and wine room,swimming pool and yoga studio, an ice room in a manmade snow flurry and three hellipads,antilla, has it all. it is coming up at a furious pace on altamaount road at malabar hill.

while visiting my daughter who lives nearby,i happened to see this monumental structure rising up eclipsing all things around. being built on a plot of land bought controversially from the muslim wakf board for only about 5 million dollars, the mumbai municipal corporation issued several instructions for stoppage of work due to insufficient permission. nevertheless,the project goes on undeterred and unfazed. expected to be ready by early 2009, the ecofriendly home which has a magnificent view of the arabian sea from the higher floors will be costlier than any 5 star hotel and will put lakshmi mittal's new mansions in london far behind.

mukesh's father,the famous late dhirubhai ambani and the founder of the 'reliance' empire had built a skyscraper in colaba during his heydays and had named it 'sea wind'. the son having a networth of 43 billion dollars has gone many steps beyond the father by building 'antilla'. it is a 'real' castle in the air.

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