This blog is shutting down

I no longer have this property. I hated to let it go, but I had to

A few nude pictures

The rains are coming and its time to do the roof. Its now or never. We took down the roofing tiles for the first time in its history and found out that most of the woodwork underneath needed replacement. Well our team of skilled craftsmen are at it every day and the roof should be done in another two days.

Making a living

One of the thoughts that occupy me is how can one make a living in an eco-friendly and sustainable way. I wont go over-board and over-idealistic, consider me a middle-of-the-road guy. I am not anti- progress or anti-industrialization, however I keep thinking...there must be a way...

Several years ago while teaching a course in Armenia I found a student wearing a necklace made of dried coconuts! Don't take it lightly, the necklace belonged to her grandmother and was 40 YEARS OLD!! I remember when we were young we were fascinated by the "Kunni" seed കുന്നി കുരു (Arbus Precatorius).

The Kunni Kuru is often collected along with Manjadi Kuru ( മഞ്ചാടി കുരു ) Adenanthera pavonina
. We used to make necklaces out of them. This led me to wonder about using other seeds... and guess what I found? A website dedicated to Botanical Jewellery. Now all I have to do is to find buyers.

Btw, did you know that the Kunni Kuru was used to measure Gold and there were even gold coins based on the weight of a Kunni Kuru? But watch out, they are poisonous!

Adenanthera pavonina മഞ്ചാടി കുരു

A guest from America

Image Courtesy, The Smithsonian Institution, Plant Image Collection.

At the HBR we have a visitor from America who has taken up more or less permanent residence there. Swietenia Mahagoni. She..how can someone whose name rhymes with SWEET be a HE?.... arrived in India in 1795. The word, Mahagony apparently derives from Sanskrit where Maha महा means Great and Gony comes from Guna गुण which means qualities. How a visitor got re-christened and what was her name before she was re-christened remains a mystery. India seems to have welcomed the visitor with our traditional hospitality and she has even entered the herbal pharmacopeadiea.

For a technical description of our guest, click here.

When you are on the premises, it is easier to recognize from the picture below

Furniture

We saw an interesting shop away from the tourist circuit where they were selling restored furniture. Unlike the "antique shops", they were selling at below the price I would pay for new furniture, so we decided to buy a few pieces for the home. Right now there is repair work going on on the roof of the house, so we have not put in any furniture.

The House

From house by the river

I have a friend who once told me about the architecture of middle class houses in Kerala. They usually consist of a core house and extensions that have been built as the family needs grow. Hence a house is like an archeological dig, a mix of different styles and architecture. Different extension ( ചയി പ്പ് ) built at different periods. The materials are not the most expensive. For example, expensive houses have Teak Wood (തെക്ക്‌) and Rose Wood ( വീട്ടി ). The middle class houses uses either Anjili ( ആഞ്ഞിലി ) or Jackfruit Wood (പ്ലാവ് ). Even the finish of the house is more pragmatic than aesthetic.

The HBR is a classic along the lines described above, hence its a mix of old and new architecture. The core of the house is 68 years old and other sections have been added on by subsequent generations. The wood work you see in the centre is a wooden room used for grain storage in Kerala called the Ara. To the left of it is a kitchen, that still has a tiled roof. On the right side (not visible) is a longish room with a "Sheet" roof. The last room on the right side is a modern room with tiled flooring and a concrete roof. Restoration work aims to preserve its status as a middle class house and to preserve the traditions it represents.

More about Fauna

1. Teak Wood (Tecona Grandis)
2. Rose Wood apparently refers to a number of trees with a rich dark woods , but indian rosewood is (Dalbergia Sisoo )
3. Anjili, a version of the Jack Fruit Tree (Artocarpus Hirsutus)
4. Jackfruit Tree is a Relative of the Anjili ( Artocarpus heterophyllus )
   

The River

The Meenachil River is the most important river in kottayam. It winds around Kottayam and is both the source of its drinking water (not far from the HBR) and the source of its early trade and commerce, when Kottayam was the hub of the spice route called "Hill Produce" or Malancharakku (മലനചരക്കു ) as it is called in Malayalam.

Click on meenachil link on the right to know more.