Step into Indian expat Ketan Shah’s five-bedroom villa and be prepared to be transported to a galaxy far, far away.
Tucked in the quiet Umm Suqeim district in Dubai, the villa features a private museum with a jaw-dropping collection of TIE fighters, lightsabers, blasters, Millennium Falcons and R2D2s ― enough to stage an assault on the Death Star.
Mr Shah's stockpile includes more than 400 models and souvenirs and Lego collections.
A curious and compulsive collector since the age of 8, the Gujarati businessman also owns 60,000 comic books, 800 caps and lapel pins, discarded cigar and chewing gum wrappers, old plane tickets ― and much more.
I share it with my friends. It is my world. I find joy here
Ketan Shah
He reckons he's spent about $500,000 on the collection over the decades. It could be worth millions of dollars if ever sold.
“I have been collecting things for more than 50 years. It started as a hobby. Now it is my passion,” Mr Shah, 60, told The National.
Retired and living alone in Dubai, with his two grown-up children in the US, collecting is his full-time job and passion.
He kept his collection "strictly private" until he invited The National to document it.
"I share it with my friends. It is my world. I find joy here,” said Mr Shah, who is the son of the late Bharat Bhai Shah, a businessman and influential Indian community leader in Dubai.
When you step in to his main collection room, the space opera heroes of George Lucas stare at you from every angle.
“This is my favourite place. I can feel the fight between the good and the evil,” said Mr Shah, who has watched every Star Wars movie “at least a hundred times".
“There are many more coming,” he said with a smile.
He said he became hooked Star Wars after watching the first movie which was released in 1977.
“I loved the movies so much that I started collecting the soft toys, and now I have around 55 Funko Pops. I also have around 500 Star Wars caps, T-shirts, neck ties, socks, pyjamas and even masks that I was wearing during the peak of Covid-19.”
Mr Shah also has a dozen miniatures of Star Wars characters such as Darth Vader, Master Yoda, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi made of Swarovski crystals. Each costs anything between $200 and $800.
“I found them in a showroom in New York and I could not take my eyes off them," he said.
"Now I am eyeing a Millennium Falcon made of crystals and precious stones that costs around $15,000. That is beyond my budget now.”
He believes his Lego collection could be one of the biggest any collector has. “What you see here is only 20 per cent of what I have. I have not assembled it due to space constraints,” he said.
Hobby turned into passion
Mr Shah said his love of collecting started with comic books such as Indrajal and Amar Chitra Katha (Indian comic series based on epics such as mythology).
“I never had enough pocket money to buy a lot of them, of course. So I used to comb through old book stalls and also ask friends and relatives for old comic books.
“Sometimes, I would find a few dozen lying covered in dust on a roadside bookshop, and that would make my day. I have the entire collection of Tintin, Commando, Indrajal and Amar Chitra Katha, Archies, Richie Rich and Phantom. Some of my subscriptions are still on and I get eight to 10 copies a month.”
After moving to the UAE in 1983 to join his father’s business, Mr Shah said he zealously pursued his hobby despite his busy work life and family.
Business travels and e-commerce helped him to expand his collection, he said. “Wherever I travel, I look for interesting things. The internet also makes it easy as one can always find things online.
“My children are also big cheerleaders of my hobby and they always bring me stuff when they visit me in Dubai."
So, how much does he spend on his hobby? “It is an expensive hobby,” Mr Shah said. “But once a collector, you cannot count the penny. You do it because you love it.”
Opening a museum in Dubai
Mr Shah said he had no idea what to do with his possessions as his collection grows.
“Though I am living alone, I am keeping this villa to store my collection. I painstakingly take care of each and every item I have. For example, I individually wrap the comic books in acid-free paper to preserve them for a long period of time. I also have a list where all the items I have are numbered.”
He said he was open to the idea of opening a museum or a themed cafe so that people can enjoy his collection.
“If someone approaches me with a brilliant idea, I am open to it," he said. "But I am not actively pursuing anybody. The only thing that I chase now is maybe more Star Wars souvenirs.”
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Know your Camel lingo
The bairaq is a competition for the best herd of 50 camels, named for the banner its winner takes home
Namoos - a word of congratulations reserved for falconry competitions, camel races and camel pageants. It best translates as 'the pride of victory' - and for competitors, it is priceless
Asayel camels - sleek, short-haired hound-like racers
Majahim - chocolate-brown camels that can grow to weigh two tonnes. They were only valued for milk until camel pageantry took off in the 1990s
Millions Street - the thoroughfare where camels are led and where white 4x4s throng throughout the festival
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
MATCH DETAILS
Liverpool 2
Wijnaldum (14), Oxlade-Chamberlain (52)
Genk 1
Samatta (40)
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
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WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
SQUADS
South Africa:
JP Duminy (capt), Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock (wkt), AB de Villiers, Robbie Frylinck, Beuran Hendricks, David Miller, Mangaliso Mosehle (wkt), Dane Paterson, Aaron Phangiso, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Tabraiz Shamsi
Bangladesh
Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Imrul Kayes, Liton Das (wkt), Mahmudullah, Mehidy Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim (wkt), Nasir Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Shafiul Islam, Soumya Sarkar, Taskin Ahmed
Fixtures
Oct 26: Bloemfontein
Oct 29: Potchefstroom
