Bawas in Bangkok

Whenever we are travelling abroad and see fellow Indians doing well, it fills our hearts with pride and joy. The feeling is enhanced if the persons happen to also be Zoroastrian!
The Poonevalas of Bangkok have adjusted to life in that city like a foot in a comfortable shoe. Hard work, intelligence and integrity have taken them to the top echelons of the social and corporate world.
An apartment in the well-heeled Sathorn Park Place Condo in Bangkok is the home of Tasneem (née Kadwani) and Shiraz and their lovely, lively twin daughters Rhea and Zahra. The home is warm, vibrant and beautiful, with a distinctly eastern thread running through it. Middle Eastern rugs scattered across a polished wooden floor and silver artefacts from India, blend seamlessly with a profusion of south-east Asian Buddhas, vases, wall-plates and exquisite furniture.
The silver artefacts are all from Tasneem’s parental home. "They were items of everyday use in our home in Bombay,” she says. "I remember my grandmother wearing these silver khadaouns (type of footwear) around the house.”
There are three good sized bedrooms each with an attached bathroom. "One for the flow of guests we have throughout the year, one for the 12-year-old twins and one for us,” the lady of the house informs us.

Poonevala family clockwise: Shiraz, Tasneem, Zahra and Rhea; artefacts and a carved door in their home

The guest room with sliding doors that open onto the main living room serves a dual purpose. When there are no in-house guests, the double bed can be pushed out to make a comfortable couch. An antique coffee table, a settee and walls lined with books and bric-a-brac, make for attractive additional space when they are entertaining a larger number of people.
An entrance foyer that merges into an L-shaped dining-cum-living room, a large kitchen and a wrap-around verandah complete the home. And yes, behind the kitchen is a decent sized room with an attached bathroom for the two live-in maids. The maids speak Hindi and Thai with equal fluency. They are of Indian descent who crossed over from Burma, where their forefathers had migrated many decades ago. Under Tasneem’s tutelage Radha the cook and Sunita the maid make the house run on well oiled wheels and provide gourmet meals!
The Sathorn Park Place Condo offers much more than a mere apartment, with 24 hours security and a concierge at the front desk. There is a beautiful swimming pool with the fragrance of frangipani flowers wafting over it, a gym, tennis courts and a play area for children. Plus ample, assigned parking space for every apartment. A two-minute walk down a shady lane and you hit the main road, with all the boom and bustle of Bangkok.

Left: The condo swimming pool Right: Sitting arrangement

Both Shiraz and Tasneem were high profile bankers in Bombay before Shiraz was relocated to Bangkok. Shiraz has a way with figures — and we don’t mean the 38”-26”-36” type. His acumen in finance was soon spotted by a leading industrialist of Indian origin based in Bangkok. Shiraz travels the world in managing his various business ventures.
Tasneem is the very capable woman behind this successful man. Her organizational abilities, her energy and her warmth are admirable and make up for her more reticent husband. She works as an administrative executive in the British International School where their daughters study.
There is something about the home and the family that makes every guest feel special with a welcome note and a beautifully wrapped gift on the bedside table, a relaxing Thai massage and congeniality that envelopes even the friends of guests. The Poonevala house can best be described as contemporary space with an eastern soul.