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Just across from my childhood home stands our ancient tharavad, our old ancestral home. A sprawling structure with over thirty rooms and open verandas both inside and outside, constructed of red bricks and teakwood in the traditional style of Kerala architecture. With a history dating back more than three hundred years, this beautiful two storey naalukettu, quadrangular building with an open to sky central courtyard, emanates an air of peacefulness and tranquility. It is an interface between the built world and the tropical greenery; with open to sky courtyard in the center and open verandas lined with pillars both inside and out. Its classical gables-like structure is supported by wooden colonnades. Many of the centuries-old naalukettu buildings of Kerala have become just a fond memory today. Several traditional houses were dismantled during the construction boom in the State in the eighties and early nineties. New houses with concrete roofs and tiled floors were built. Soon high rises followed. They were the outcome of a changed economic structure and social outlook. The doors to our unoccupied ancestral home, one of the few remaining naalukettu homes, remain open during the day for all in our extended family. This ancient house literally belongs to every single person in our matrilineal line. Our ancestors who built this house had decided that every person in the extended family has access to it in times of need, but no one is allowed to take possession of it. Strange as it may seem even in this 21st century this unoccupied house is maintained by our extended family. A single light bulb burns at the front door all through the night to welcome the lonely family member who may be looking for a place to stay. This Naalukettu was our favorite playground in my childhood. On hot summer afternoons we played hide-and-seek around the massive wooden pillars surrounding the quadrangle. And on monsoon-drenched days, we would close the outlet from the inner courtyard with its granite stopper, and wait for the inside water level to rise. Then we floated paper boats made with old newspapers in the water. During summer holidays our kaikottikali (Kerala folk dance) classes were held around the courtyard. Agricultural Festival In times past, Nira, the agricultural festival that celebrated bringing home the harvest of first rice stalks, was a major event at this house. The whole extended family gathered around the courtyard for the festivities. The house was cleaned thoroughly and the floor of the nadumittam, inner courtyard, was decorated with lighted bronze oil lamps and kolam, an intricate design drawn with rice flour. Much more than just an aesthetic art, it symbolizes happiness and prosperity. These designs consists of dots and lines that are joined with straight and curved lines or, lines going round the dots resulting in a design consisting exclusively of curved lines. As the farm hands brought in the stacks of rice we would chant Nira nirayoodu nira nira nira, Poli poliyodu poli poli poli, Ellum nira vallam nira vallotti nira, which translates loosely as “fill the home with rice and fill the vallam and vallotti (rattan seed storage containers) with rice.” ...more> |
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