The house I live in was constructed in 1983. It was my grandad's dream house, for which he had saved enough and built. Located in a developing suburb of Chennai, the house was the only one on the street for a few years. By the time I was born, the locality had developed well and became a comfortable suburb for families to own a house and live in.
A developing suburb in a metropolitan city meant the civic facilities like roads, sewage, street lighting, footpaths were pathetic. Relaying the road on top of the previous one led to the height of the road to increase more than 3 feet over the past 30 years. This made the house lay at a lower height than the road, which meant requiring to ramp up the drains and the surrounding surface outside the house to ensure it wouldn't get flooded. Since monsoon is here in Chennai, it brought back memories of how I spent my nights during heavy monsoon rains.
Currently, the corner of the house shares a wall with the neighbour's.
A few years earlier, the height of the surface was much lower, with an open, exposed drain that went to a septic tank (colloquial term for sewage tank)
When it would rain really heavily, the water level rose above the ankles outside the house. My mom, brother and I would wake up at odd hours at night, put on raincoats and push water out of the house onto the road using a mop. I vividly remember the occasional thunder that would light up the entire place for an instant very eerily. We couldn't afford to spend a lot of money to raise the height of the house. Most monsoon nights were stressful as we worried about the water coming inside the house.
Thinking of this, I decided to go around the house and pick out spaces where I had vivid memories from my childhood that had a connection with the space.
I had spent a lot of time playing with my brother on the balcony. The shade of this tree meant we could run around all day, even during a hot summer.
There used to be a large branch that connected to the main trunk of the tree. It was at the ideal height and thickness to tie a swing. Who doesn't love a swing at home?
On the other side of the balcony, stood this desolate pillar. It is a nice place to sit on and read a book, if it weren't for the layers of bird poop that was on it.
After watching the animated Superman TV show, I would ask my mom to tie a towel around my neck, to use as a cape. Then I'd get on the pillar, jump and shout "Superman!" Soon, my brother joined me and we'd fight for space on top of the pillar and jump at the same time.
The stairs currently come down alongside the house, but they face towards the back of the house, which makes it look quite weird.
Earlier, the stairs turned around halfway down and ended close to the gate. The spot where I would stand was around 3-4 feet from the ground. After extensively watching skydiving and other adventurous sports on Discovery and Nat Geo channels on TV, I'd attempt my own daredevil stunts by standing on the outer side of the stairs and jumping down. I'd imagine that to be an airplane and me dropping out of the door, to hurtle towards the Earth. Although, I wouldn't dare to skydive in real life now.
The other balcony upstairs with a long, straight parapet. There were no railings when I was a kid, they were added after I grew up and had enough sense not to climb over a low parapet wall.
Being quite the lonely kid, I had a lot of toy trucks and cars that kept me company. In my mind, the parapet wall was a highway to race my vehicles on. To get a more cinematic view, I'd lean onto the wall and look close to the cars. This caused my mom to check on me constantly, to make sure I wouldn't fall over.
This is my understaniding of how spaces influence emotions and memory. They reinforce our memories of the past and strengthen connections and our association with the environment. With my house almost touching 40 years of age, the thought of rebuilding the house has started to spring up in the family. It is becoming too expensive and futile to renovate the house multiple times. Currently, traces of the past structure of the house serve joyful reminders of childhood. Sadly, there will be a time when they would rest in my head and not my immediate surroundings.
Skandha
Comments