Windows

  I had never followed any particular grid pattern for my insta page. Never followed a particular trend either. Thankfully never had to dance for a post, thankful because I just can’t dance ! I have 2 left feet. I had attempted trying to practice Tiruvathira kali at school, realised I’ll never be able to even follow the simplest of steps in any form of dance ever and that was that !

Unknowingly, with my morn posts in front of my kitchen window, somehow a grid of sorts came to be. Which I liked. Now when I am travelling this poses a challenge. I’ll have to look for aesthetic windows. At vdky, sadly during the renovation, windows were mostly replaced.  Except for these 2 in the bedroom that’s called ‘pudhool’. Meaning the new room.

When my thatha bought this property ( supposedly from his mom’s side of the family, I am not sure if this is accurate info), this was 2 separate homes and a ‘chaayippu’. So pudhool was that chayippu added on as another room. And there was no concept of bedroom. This post is getting to be longer than I had anticipated.

So, the home before my dad got it, before he renovated it ( I would have done a much better job 🤪, but I was very young ), was a single unit, but had 3 entrances ! The first one had a thinnai, a pooja room, a chinna koodam, a koodam and an adukkalai. 

The second adjoining part had THE ROOM. A huge room with very high ceilings. Apparently this used to be thatha’s room, where he had a single wooden cot, lots of rasa gundu hanging from the ceiling, Ravi Varma prints with embroidery on them, a Tanjore painting which is now so old etc etc. He had great taste, I always felt. I have his writing table with me now at my chennai home . A beautiful colonial magagony piece, which I treasure. 

This room is still maintained the same, except for the addition of really bad furniture today, thanks to my parents and my eldest sister ( I don’t think she follows me 😂). So the second bit has this room and a nezhi. There used to another room, the kollathavaram. That led to the kollai. That has now been converted to another make do bedroom . 

Kitchen also led to the kollai, the huge huge back yard, at the end of which was the lone toilet. The kuli muri was adjacent to the kitchen, which is still the same except for the addition of a bad cement thindu to sit on. The heater that still works amazingly well is probably 30 years old !

That toilet probably requires a separate blog! An old Indian style one, with plenty of snakes around . One reason why I am not scared of snakes today 😃. 

 Before that we had an anda in the rendan kettu which had hot water through out the day. I now have the cover of that anda, which used to be soot coated, which turned out to be a beautiful brass thaambalam with an Anna pakshi engraved on it. I have it at home. The rendaan kettu was the outhouse.

Back to pudhool. We used to sleep here. Appa, amma, me. I still sleep the deepest in this room. This is the room where my kollu thatha passed away, my dad passed away, but I find it soothing. I still sleep on the same mattress Appa slept on in his last days. Anyways.

This third stretch had pudhool and an adjacent room which had benches placed around and on those benches went all of the mattresses. All folded and kept away during the day. A room full of jamakkalams and mattresses piled up high . Our home was always full of people. That has changed so much. Now hardly anyone visits. Long story. It’ll be like Mahabharatam. One story leads to another. And another. 

Pudhool today is cluttered. It has my dad’s old almirah, which hasn’t been opened since he died. I think the key is misplaced. It has random cots and benches. And it has a terribly styled bathroom 😂. Fake marble tiling on top of which bad pink tiles have been put on. But it’s my favourite room in the house. It’s my safe spot. 

I don’t know why I didn’t say anything about all this when the renovation was being done. I think pudhool still retains the old red oxide flooring. Or was it new? I can’t remember.

I love this home. I don’t like its clutter, but with 3 elder sisters,  nothing I say or do is taken seriously. So I ignore it and focus on the peace this home brings me .