Fed on stories by Ma, of her first impression of the imposing ancestral house into which she came as a young wife, I was always intrigued by the #Tharakan #Tharavadu structure located by the #Koonamoochi Junction, on the #Choondal - #Guruvayoor highway. Growing up in a city like Baroda it was difficult to imagine such a large 'house' for one family. But again, for a child in the city, family is so 'nuclear' and so selfishly 'me and mine'! Space in a city home is limited and conceivable uses of those spaces are also limited. And here was this building towering over all the single level structures at the junction and beyond, with innumerable rooms called variously, according to quaint functionality, which was alien to me. It was a maze, that sometimes frightened me. In fact, other than the #adukala or the kitchen, and the #thinna or the large hall at the entrance, I was not familiar with the various names for the rooms (as a child). And honestly, there was no room demarcated as a 'bedroom'!! It seemed as if the structure was in controll and the members living in it were in temporary residence and were allowed to 'fit' in their cots and #pullpaaya' mats and call it their bedroom while they lived!! In fact, there was no privacy!!
And that's when Ma told me that the corner room on the first floor was reserved for the newly weds!! For as long as the next in line wedded couple in the family had that privilege!! I have shared long ago on my blog, my Ma's own fears as a young bride, of climbing those steep wooden staircase, with no electricity, creaking wooden rafters, and a balcony open to the street!! So much for privacy!! Having grown up with just her parents and a brother, she was more than happy to leave the 'crowded' Tharavadu with her husband, soon after marriage, to yet another unfamiliar terrain, and the experiences therein.....
Unfortunately, this lovely 125+ year old structure and large property (in which my father had no legal claim or rather, relinquished all claims) was sold and demolished a few years ago. And when I try to remember and scribble down all those memories shared by Ma over the years, this imposing structure comes alive, and I pick the threads from my own memory of weekend stays in the Tharavadu with my father's elder brother / Veliappan and family during Summer vacations at my Ma's house in Viyoor, Trissur.
Sadly I don't have good photographs either. Of the layout of one room leading to another till the deep end of the structure to its backyard, of the scary deep 'well within a well' by the kitchen, of the view from the low roofed third floor, or the large community well which was dug just outside the house soon after independence. Both the wells still exists....
And that's when Ma told me that the corner room on the first floor was reserved for the newly weds!! For as long as the next in line wedded couple in the family had that privilege!! I have shared long ago on my blog, my Ma's own fears as a young bride, of climbing those steep wooden staircase, with no electricity, creaking wooden rafters, and a balcony open to the street!! So much for privacy!! Having grown up with just her parents and a brother, she was more than happy to leave the 'crowded' Tharavadu with her husband, soon after marriage, to yet another unfamiliar terrain, and the experiences therein.....
Unfortunately, this lovely 125+ year old structure and large property (in which my father had no legal claim or rather, relinquished all claims) was sold and demolished a few years ago. And when I try to remember and scribble down all those memories shared by Ma over the years, this imposing structure comes alive, and I pick the threads from my own memory of weekend stays in the Tharavadu with my father's elder brother / Veliappan and family during Summer vacations at my Ma's house in Viyoor, Trissur.
Sadly I don't have good photographs either. Of the layout of one room leading to another till the deep end of the structure to its backyard, of the scary deep 'well within a well' by the kitchen, of the view from the low roofed third floor, or the large community well which was dug just outside the house soon after independence. Both the wells still exists....
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