"I wanted to collect wives," he jokes, "I must have had natural instinct for things beautiful -- anything which showed grace and pleased the eye. I bought a camera to capture natural beauty when I was 12, and photography remained a passion."

Jehangir lost his wife after 27 years of marriage, and being alone made him want to move out to fill the lacuna -- he began visiting galleries. One time while visiting the Taj Art Gallery he picked up the first of his awe-inspiring collection -- `A Scenery' by Sharad Waykool for Rs 500. This whetted his appetite and he started frequenting Pundole Art Gallery and Chemould. Over cups of tea with Kali Pundole he met several artists from the progressive group -- M F Hussain, S H Raza, Ram Kumar, Akbar Padamsee, Krishan Khanna -- with whom he talked about art.

In 1970 he gave adonation to NCPA, requesting J R D Tata to use this for a museum of modern art which had never existed until that time in Bombay, a prerequisite for the urbs prima of a country.

"Jeh jumped at the idea and insisted on naming it `The Jehangir Nicholson Museum of Modern Art'." With some help from Bal Chabda and Narayanan Menon, the idea was actualised and Jehangir put 58 works of art on view for the museum thus formed, which stands on the first floor above the Little Theatre at NCPA. Unfortunately, due to a lack of publicity, few know of the existence of this museum.

In the late seventies he ran into Laxhman Shreshtha and his wife Sunita. His abstract art intrigued Jehangir and he started what was to be a long relationship with Laxhman's art. Today there are nearly 25 of Laxhman's works in his collection, the largest of any one painter in his repertoire.

"My outlook toward art was now one of collecting and loving." Jehangir's favourite artists -- whose works have become important parts of his collection-- are Gaitonde, Ram Kumar, Krishan Khanna, "Husain of course", Ara, Ganesh Pyne, Anjoli Ela Menon, K G Subramaniam, Bhupen Kakkar, Atul and Anju Dodiya.

His greatest concern today is what will become of the art that he has so assidously collected, after him. "Such a magnificent collection cannot be an inheritance to be enjoyed by just a few people." He has requested the government of Maharashtra to provide him with a piece of land in South Bombay of 3,000 square yards. On which he would like to build a museum of modern art where he would like to house his collection. Jehangir's gift to the city of Bombay and people from all over the world -- a permanent collection of some of India's finest art. This is his greatest dream and desire.