Just a Place to Stay

Mukesh Ambani and his family will be moving into their new home later this month. Yeah, its no breaking news. Its just that the at a cost estimated anywhere between 1 and 2 Billion dollars, it’s the most expensive home in the world. In fact, it has no competition for the record was last time, as per Forbes, held by Candy Spelling’s Beverly Hills mansion- The Manor which is estimated to be worth 150 million dollars.

The humble home of Ambani, named the Antillia, is a 27-storey 570-foot high skyscraper on Mumbai’s Altamount Road. Each floor is twice as high as a normal building, else at 570 feet, one could have built a 60 storey tower with double the floor space. Even then, the interior space of the home is 400,000 square feet. Sorry, can’t think of any analogy for this.

The parking lot of the home, with a capacity of 168 mercs, occupies the first six floors. 600 servants will attend to the Ambanis- Mukesh, Nita, the three kids and Mukesh’s mother. The family will be residing on the top 4 floors, with its fine view of the city and the Arabian Sea. On Nita’s insistence, the building is made in such a way that no two floors will have the same plan or use the same materials. Mounted on the roof are three separate Helipads. Don’t ask my why three.

The main attractions of the “home” is a ballroom with 80% of its ceiling covered in crystal chandeliers and a 50 seat private movie theater. Antillia also houses a health club, dance studio, wine room, 9 elevators, lounges, guestrooms and elevated gardens. And yes, to discontinue the family trait of obesity, each family member has a separate gym.

The contrast is extreme. Mumbai, with the world’s largest slum, will have the most expensive home in the world. But we are quite used to such extremes for India, with the worlds largest number of poor people, is only behind USA when it comes to the number of billionaires. Sceptics would point out that just because millions are poor and hungry does not mean others can’t make money and flaunt it. We have learned to live with our contradictions, but should we celebrate it?

This is simply not a case where a hard-working man heading a company with an impeccable past has built his home in a legitimate way using his hard-earned money. The home is built on a land sold to Ambani to be used as an orphanage by the Waqf Board. And boy, what a wonderful orphanage has Ambani built.

The one acre land was bought by Antillia Commercial, a subsidiary of Reliance, for Rs. 21 crores, 20 times lower than its market rate. Waqf property can only be used for religious and charitable purposes. The property was to be used for looking after the destitute and orphan children of the Khoja Mohammedan community.

So much for Nita Ambani’s public display of love for poor children in the IPL circus. So much for CSR. Its all a sham. “Educate every child” campaign, et all. Next time you hear about a company’s commitment to social issues, don’t believe it. At least doubt the sincerity and never forget the possibility of harm they cause to others. At the end what matters is how much money you make, not how you make them. Looks like the Ambani legacy is still intact.