Home Tour ~ Asha in Bahrain

Today, I'm taking you to Asha's home in Bahrain... 

over to Asha... 

My name is Asha Srinivas and is residing in the beautiful Kingdom of Bahrain.  My hobbies are painting, reading, writing articles and poetry (which have been published in the newspapers and magazines of Bahrain), I maintain my own blog site, cooking, traveling and of course interior decoration to name a few.

I have held the post of the Hon. President of the Indian Ladies Association for the year 2011/12.

I have held two Tanjore painting exhibitions here in Bahrain, one in the year 2007 and the 2nd in 2011. The 1st exhibition had 43 paintings depicting all the Gods and Goddesses of India( Tanjore painting is a traditional south Indian art form mostly consisting of mythological characters). My second painting exhibition was a slightly different one, I showcased 36 Tanjore paintings with a difference, I depicted WOMEN FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE in my Tanjore work… from Mughal women to Ravi Verma to Egyptian queens to village belles to neck pieces and kadaa(bangle) to name a few. I have been a part of many a fund raising cultural events and my last program was the Indian Night - I did for the Shaikhas of the royal family of Bahrain. My family and I have been on the cover of ‘Salaam Bahrain’, a local magazine… we were a model family for one of their housing and investment advertisement.

As I have two homes, one in Bangalore and the other in Bahrain, I keep shuttling between the two. You’ve already seen pictures of my home in Bangalore...

Talking about my Bahrain home, when we moved into this house it was an empty space and I was very excited to do up the entire house according to my taste.
To begin with I took up the entrance lobby, as there was already an existing stunning black wooden arch; I took the help of my husband in designing a shoe rack so that it looked in sync when it is viewed from the living space. The mirror work wall hanging (which I did some 20 years back) was framed in black wood and put on the centre of the shoe rack, to add color to this furniture, I picked up pure silk dress material of various colors and got cushions made here in Bahrain and that completed the picture! You can also see one more hand work of mine – a small mirror work piece which is some 11 years old, this too has a black wooden frame and is donning a small side wall of the lobby.

Coming to the living, it was a bit difficult because it was one huge hall, I had to segregate formal living and informal living space, and so I keep pushing and pulling the sofas according to our requirements…hahhaa..! As I said about my Tanjore paintings earlier, the walls of my living are full of them and it has added a touch of vibrant rich gold and color to my entire living area.

The dining area has on one wall antique porcelain plates from the Middle East region and on the other I have put up my son’s unique art work (pen sketches of different shapes and sizes) put together in a blue mounted frame.

One wall in the dining room also features Ganjifa playing cards which I picked up from the Mysore palace gallery shop and framed it here in Bahrain.

The other wall in the informal living area has picture post cards of various Goddesses in double frame with velvet mounting.

When nature comes indoor it adds its own beauty and color, hence the various potted plants!

I bet you can't wait to see part two now... *grins*...