Article: A treasure in ‘rubbish’

Wednesday June 3, 2009

WHAT others consider to be rubbish, is sometimes seen as a treasure to M. Anand.

The retired civil servant who is now a prominent landscape designer, uses unwanted items and transforms them into charming features for his home which is surrounded by a Balinese-inspired garden.

Designer M. Anand has a golden touch with unwanted items and his resplendent home is proof of it.

A gate studded with samsu bottles, still in their natural colours, welcomes visitors to Anand's double-storey corner house in Taman Tasik Indah, Taiping.

"Rubbish, with just some cleaning and placed in the right places, can be beautiful.

"It's not how much you spend," he said.

From discarded bottles to his old asbestos roof, he never fails to realise their potential to be something special.

Priceless scraps: Anand's verendah is put together using old railway sleepers while a padi harvester has been turned into a wash basin.

He once picked up a large driftwood by the river and turned it into a bench with help from his carpenter.

His garden table and steps along the veranda at the back of his garden are old railway sleepers put together, while a padi harvester has been turned into a wash basin.

"And if you look closely at the pillars, they are actually pieces of my broken asbestos roof, which I had stuck together to appear like the bark of the tree.

"The pillars of the gazebo are made from concrete drain pipes," added Anand.

Standing proud: The pillars of the two-storey gazebo in the garden are made from concrete drain pipes.

Complete with a two-storey gazebo, ''koi'' fish pond and waterfalls, his garden is his personal "Balinese spa".

The place exudes a peaceful and calming effect with sounds of rustling waters and insects inside from a man-made jungle.

He had previously won the state-level landscape competition three times and twice in the national landscape competition as a champion in the "semi-detached and double storey corner lot".

Anand's collection of old coin boxes.

"The first time I entered a competition was six years ago when I was serving in the civil service then.

Not long after, he opted for retirement and went into landscaping designing full time.

Inside his home, is also full of surprises.

From an old clock or radio to a coin box, there is something special in every nook and cranny.

"I started collecting them from the time I was a teenager.

"It was an interest that my father had (significantly) passed on to me," he shared, showing off a 1945 telephone that was salvage from an old Tamil vernacular school in Kedah.

Of all his prized possessions, however, Anand is most fond of old milk bottles sitting on his living room shelf. He had used them when he was a baby.

This article was taken from: The Star Online: Metro: North 3 June 2009