The diary of life- page 1

Now that I've better trust in my photographic skills, i dare to upload some pictures i had taken when i went home one weekend to my place, Perinkulam. Perinkulam is my mother's birthplace. It is a village in the district of Palakkad.

It is a group of 3 Agraharams .

(more on Perinkulam and Agraharams in the next post)

I was inspired to write this post after reading my friend Smithin's blog post. He'd written a short story which took me back to my childhood. It is not like that my childhood was like what depicted there..but the places described there had an appeal, like the smell of earth after rain..the smell I cherish and which always makes me nostalgic. So i thought of writing this one.

My grandfather's house is some 100 years old and was passed form generation to generation. I spent most of my childhood there, running between my house and my grandfather's. We call it 'thatha aam'. (Aam in Iyer Tamil means house).

The house as I said earlier is very old. The doors are very strong. The front door has a tricky latch, unique to the architecture followed at the time when it was built, which makes it impossible for thieves to break in. There are elaborate carvings on the lintel and jambs.The doors are not much high. Because of this they are a constant threat to tall people, which includes me. (I had the pleasure of banging my head on the beams a pretty good number of times). There is courtyard in the middle of the house. It used be an open one, but later it was closed from the above, and glass panes were fitted in between the roof tiles for letting in sunlight.

The main room of the house , has wooden roof, which also bears the attic. The wooden roof is called 'Thattu'. This roofing acts as a thermostat, keeping the room warm during heavy rains and cool during summer. The kitchen is bigggg!!! I used to run and play around inside the kitchen when I was a kid. Then comes the 'kollathavaaram' , i.e. the back end of the house beyond the back doors. That is where the servant of the house sits and does the dishes and laundry. Then we have a well at the 'thodi' or 'kollai', meaning the backyard. The backyard also has the 'Thulsi plant', vital for a complete home. Then there is a well, wide and deep. Many a buckets and mugs were lost into the depths of the well over years. Then comes a 'padippura' i.e a small gateway to the vast backyard which lies behind.

I'm adding some pictures of my maternal grandfather's house here.

A view of the opposite house's veranda from the upstairs window.

(you can see the traditional style stairs and pillars of the house)

The old uppu manga bharani

Old fashioned windows. Each grid is made of single piece of wood and is elaborately carved.

Very strong wooden doors.

The attic

This house is so dear to me, that it holds the vibes of my past, present and hopefully my future too... :)