When Sachin Tendulkar visited Monish Bali's bungalow-gallery in Delhi

By Shashi Sunny

Aiming sky-high has been a way of life with Sachin Tendulkar. Little wonder then that the former cricket star has set his eyes on a biplane for his farmhouse.

The biplane is part of an unusual collection of art and artefacts, all largely limited edition, from a bungalow-gallery at Jangpura in New Delhi.

Among other things, the gallery also has a Rolls-Royce model converted into a table top, a cello that converts into a bar, a skull sculpture fashioned completely from 4,50,000 steel beads and crystal-studded skull vodka bottles in the likeness of superheroes like the Incredible Hulk and Batman.

Delhi-based businessman Monish Bali, for whom this is a passion space, says that when Tendulkar expressed his desire to visit, “we closed the gates and kept the gallery out of bounds for other visitors.

Alka, my wife, was already present at the gallery to receive him. He spent a lot of time looking at all the displays and signed the visitors book with the comment, “Never thought Monu would come up with an idea like this. Simply brilliant!!!”.

Cricketer Gautam Gambhir too loved the displays and wrote, “This is fabulous, never seen something like this.”

Among others who dropped by for a visit was Robert Vadra. He, reportedly, was fascinated by the halved World War 2 Harley Davidson mounted on a wall.