BENGALURU : The first thing we notice when we enter Danny Mehra’s house is carpets. On the wall, stacked on the floor and on antique pieces of furniture. The second thing we notice, or rather they notice us, are two dogs with tails that don’t stop wagging. If the woven fabrics everywhere wasn’t a dead giveaway of Mehra’s hobby, the names of the two dogs – Luri and Tulu – sure is. “Tulu is a type of carpet from central Turkey and Luri is a tribe in Northern Iran that weaves carpets,” says the carpet collector, who will exhibit select pieces from his collection in Delhi in October.
Mehra’s love for carpets took off in 1983, thanks to two carpets he and his wife got as a wedding gift from his mother-in-law. Today, an entire 3 BHK apartment has been dedicated to housing his collection of 19th century carpets from Georgia, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, north west China, Greece, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, to name a few. Mehra, however, prefers not to put an exact number to his collection. “I joke that I have enough carpets to put some on every floor of Burj Khalifa (163 floors) and still have some left over,” says the ex-finance professional.
Most carpets in Mehra’s collection are one-of-a-kind pieces made by weavers from different tribes. “Today, these are made by designers in London, Paris or New York. But the authentic ones sometimes took 3-4 years to make and the weaver just worked with an image in her mind,” explains the 62-year-old. “Some need to be mounted on fabric. I was lucky to find one person here and some in Uttar Pradesh to help me,” he says, adding that the conservation work would be over this year.
Despite his vast collection, Mehra can remember the name he’s given to each carpet (for example: Psychedelic, Too Too Too Animals, Karachov) and can tell you if it was made by a gypsy in a tent, workshop or under different circumstances. “I research each piece before I buy one and then forget nothing about it,” he says.
But Mehra had no idea he would one day have so many in his possession. “I’d call it a happy disease,” he says. He now spends 3-5 hours a day looking up different dealers or auctions, waiting for his next ‘love at first sight’ moment. Currently on the list: A Zakatala carpet from north Azarbaijaan.
Mehra also conducts sessions with Silver Talkies, an engagement platform for those aged 55 and above, where he aims to ‘demystify’ facts about carpets, like identifying tribal and formal carpets and difference between natural and chemical dyes.
In the next 10 years, Mehra hopes to have his carpets in other homes, an experience he calls “rewarding” since there aren’t many collectors in the country. But if you do plan to buy one from him, be prepared to have a good answer for the question, ‘Where will you keep it?’. “These carpets are like my children. So I want to ensure I marry my daughters off to a good place.”