Having named this blog by a house address requires some explanation. It was a house on about 2 grounds (4800 sq ft) of land in a cul de sac that anna built. But it was much more than that. It was a metaphor for an era and a life style. Eras change and so do lifestyles, but it is always easy to understand and laugh at one’s own when you have something to compare it with.
Thus, the building of c/185 (later renumbered 248) was a major accomplishment. It was a time when you did not have home loans available from banks, so it meant digging deep into your own reserves, and borrowing from one’s retirement savings. Anna was scared of debt and it was years of nagging by amma (‘all your friends have already built their houses’ etc. usually drove him to another room) that got him on the path.
A local bigwig (lawyer, I’m sure, active in the Music Academy, and so on) had recently deceased and left his estate to his children. Some of them were selling some of their shares and we took one.
The design was his, but he got hold of a junior architect, Hariharan, at a prominent architect’s firm to do the detailed drawings. Hariharan lived in the bachelor rooms at the Royapettah YMCA and we would catch him in the mornings or evenings to go over details. A general contractor was appointed but with the provisio that some of the materials would be provided by us. Cement remained a big problem, for it was an era or shortages and you needed permits and licenses to obtain many of the requirements. Ice House chithiya (S. M. Rangaswami, amma’s uncle, who used to work for the PWD, so that was enough qualification!) would come at critical times to check if the concrete was being poured properly for the roof, and the lintels were properly wired.
When it took so much effort to build the house, it had to be loved! And did he love it! Anna would stand back on the street and admire his work of art, even years after its completion. He chose not to live in the company housing in Adyar but preferred to live in his own house. His ostensible reason was that he did not want to live with colleagues next door, but I suspect the real reason was the satisfaction it gave him.
Maintenance was big with him. He was always looking to see what needed to be fixed and would have it fixed. The grand kids, during vacation visits, would be given a can of oil to go around oiling the hinges and the locks. They would also be given huge bunches of keys to go around identifying and marking as the keys were matched to the locks. Nobody could hammer a nail into a wall to hand a picture without his permission, which was rarely given. He would regularly pull chairs and tables a few inches away from the wall so they did not mark the surface. The brassware that he loved to display would be polished by him, with an old banian and a can of Brasso. All the while complaining that ‘If you wanted to give a gift to someone you did not like, choose a brass item. They would have to polish it the rest of their life!
Disturbing the structure petrified him. (He had rejected concealed wiring since he thought that if the wires needed to be replaced, it would require breaking the surface and the re-plastering would show!) For years he planned to add rooms to the terrace on the first floor and would wander around the terrace while shaving and with the soap foam dripping but never had the courage to initiate the action. The only change he made, with great reluctance, was to re-do the kitchen (re-position the sink, lower the counter, and add cupboard space) while grumbling to everybody outside amma’s earshot that it was unnecessary and ruined the kitchen!
A house like that is also a base of sorts. A base to come to during vacations, since it was always there. There are few such ones around anymore. (The other one that served its time was ‘Sripuram View,’ Chinni’s grandparents’ home.) I recall the vacation visits of the family and let’s hear their voices of what they remember!
Once the house was done, it had to be named. As Usha points out, there were several under consideration, but none that was important enough to merit christening. Some of the ones that made the initial cut (only partly in jest) were ‘At last’ and ‘VR7.’ More serious was ‘Thirumala’ the abode of his patron lord and Kamala (both his wife and his mother’s names). But in the end he decided not to hang a plaque. Perhaps he did not want to drill additional holes on the wall to hang the sign!
தாய் மண்ணே வணக்கம்
6 years ago
