Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan has a massive collection of watches. He cleans them, admires them and sometimes changes his watch three times a day. He also has a roomful of shoes ranging from loafers and boots to leather formals. He spends a lot of time arranging these pairs tidily to the point of worshipping, almost talking to them. His wife Kareena claims that Saif treats his shoes like human beings!
Like women, men too get attached to their things and share an innate connection with their treasured possessions like shoes, watches, cuff links, pens, diaries, sunglasses, cigarette holders etc. Some of them go to an unimaginable extent to take care of them.
Designer Navonil Das, one half of Dev R Nil, owns 25 pairs of shoes. He claims that he doesn’t have a shoe fetish, but he loves to invest in shoes. Whereas Dev takes his shoes for a weekly “servicing”. If Dev puts them up on the kitchen table to clean, Nil is a big fan of shoe spas at the airports. “It’s a good place to treat them to luxury once in a while,” says Nil.
He has seen his father look after his cars like a baby and inherited that passion. Music composer Dhruv Dhalla makes sure the cars are serviced and clean at all times. He asserts that men totally get emotional about their things and there is nothing to feel shy about it. “I am fixated with my watches and ties. I have about a hundred ties and I make sure that they are kept in a rack as neat as it gets. I also like to collect watches. I got a wood glass case made for them and they look gorgeous just sitting there.”
Another designer Manish Tripathi seems to be obsessed with his travel tickets he has collected over a period of eight years. “I have around 200 tickets/boarding passes with me. Every time I feel a little low, I take these out and remember the good moments spent during these trips. They actually work like a time machine that takes me back in time. A look at them rejuvenates me. I dream of writing my autobiography and I believe these tickets will help me revisit my past,” he says.
It is all about the “feel” factor and these material objects end up giving you an emotional high, says entrepreneur Faraaz Kazi, who owns around 25 watches including three Rolex, two Tag Heuer and three G-Shock watches.
“Since these are limited edition pieces, I wear them for a limited time when the occasion demands. Thus, I spend limited but quality time with them. I clean the watches with a cleaning liquid once a month. And nobody is allowed to touch the cabinet except me as I feel very possessive about my collection,” explains Kazi.
Sommelier Magandeep Singh, who is a proud owner of fountain pens with special hand-made nibs, loves to use them often. “They all have special inks and I wash them inside out once in a while as also have them serviced by trained pen-craftsmen,” he informs.
Singh also adores his shoes and spends hours buying polishes, creams and brushes and tells us that Sunday afternoons go in polishing his shoes. He says, “Leather is a natural material and needs to be treated like a living organism, just like wines. I have spent time to learn the art of glacage to make a shoe shine like a mirror.”