Gemologist Satish Kumar Shah isn’t too fond of new things; a fact that’s written all over his home in Hyderabad. The pair of antique lamps at the entrance is just the tip of the iceberg.

Unveiling the history behind them, he points out, “These aren’t lamps; they are actually the headlights of railway engines from the Nizam era.”
In fact, every corner of the home that Satish shares with wife Pallavi, mother Pramila and gemologist-jewellery designer daughters Priyanka, 30, and Radhika, 27, has decades of history attached to it. Jewellers to the Nizams of Hyderabad, Satish’s ancestors had migrated to the city during the reign of Shah Jahan. “My forefathers collected old furniture and artifacts passionately. Many of the things were acquired when I was just a child. Everything is, atleast, a decade old here,” he recalls.
Walking around the Shah residence is like touring a museum, and even the family agrees.
The TV stand in the living room is actually a 150-year-old dowry chest plated with gold. Then there are latticed screens (called jalis), door fixtures and center tables that belonged to the Nizams; an elaborate European dinner wagon; a partition with Queen Victoria cast in the glass; a Saledon plate; oil filler for the torch; and hookah, among several other antique pieces.
The only thing modern in this G+1 home is the office area at the entrance.
A fan of recycling old things, Satish has remodelled the Burmese teak windows into a painting frame. He has also converted two latticed screens and the legs of the Nizam’s bed into a centre table, which is in the family room upstairs. The beautiful wooden staircase that leads up to it was made from scraps of the Burmese teak.
His home is quite obviously a treasure trove of semi-precious stones. At the door, topped by a wooden canopy and shielded by rare enamel-glazed tiles, are two vessels filled with amethyst, rose quartz, natural quartz and sapphire; which Satish collected from the megalithic graves of Mahbub-nagar, Khammam, Orissa and the Eastern Ghats. There is hardly any other accessory to be found in this home. “We don’t need then,” say his daughters.

source: http://www.asianage.com / The Asian Age / Home> Life and Style / by Barkha Kumari / April 07th, 2013