Remember the crowded streets, the electricity wires travelling over your head, the row of pigeons sitting on the wire, and the stately house standing tall in the middle of all this? Remember the porch and the garden with green grass and seasonal flowers, the common area with multiple rooms forming a boundary around it? Remember the children playing in the gallery and their mothers shouting for them to come home for dinner? These and many more such images take me down the memory lane to the grand house where I spent my childhood. Let’s just say, in the words of the famous singer Mary Hopkin – those were the days!
A striking feature of our traditional sociology is the joint family structure, which played a prominent role in defining the roles of people in our social milieu. Till a few years back and even now in parts of the country, two-three generations staying together was a common phenomena. All brothers and their families were placed in the same house, with sections belonging to each. I remember finding it weird when suddenly the definition of family changed to “hum do, hamare do”, because for me, family constituted of multiple relations other than my parents. In fact, my family tree included the offspring of 4 brothers (4 sets of grandparents). For a good amount of time, I took great pride in starting my interviews with the line “I belong to a joint family” and how this setting had helped me working in teams, instilling in me the values of adjustment and sharing, which are a must in all phases of life. Befitting the size of the families, the good old days saw huge, multilevel, open houses with multiple rooms. Today, the movement of people outside their towns for lucrative jobs and better lifestyle is resulting in shrinking family sizes. Many people have taken to new, smaller houses, and these huge structures are now termed as “ancestral homes”, clearly indicating how these have become a thing of the past!
With multiple generations living under the same roof, the mighty edifice would be a chaotic yet cosy dwelling to people of all age groups – right from a toddler till the grannies and grandpas of the house. Just as what can be expected from a full-fledged family, the house is filled with sounds – that of laughter, light banter, crazy fights, of children crying, playing, shouting and the parents scolding/ commanding over the children! All adding to the wonderful memories that a group of people may share. I remember my mom calling my name, looking out for me for dinner. After completing all her household chores, she would be bothered by the thought of her young child only if it was of utmost importance. This freedom was bestowed on my parents by virtue of reliance on their kin in the same house to look after me – grandparents, uncles & aunts, cousins who were older to me. Probably raising families was also easier back then. The child was not the responsibility of parents only, but that of the entire family. However, with the legatees of the house migrating out, new life coming to being has become a rare phenomenon in these old structures. It will now no longer be privy to the secrets and the mischiefs of the children, but will only hear aching voices of the elderly and their longing for the next visit by their children.
There was a time when despite having multiple rooms in the house, we children longed to have separate rooms each, but could never relish the private space due to the number of people residing in the same apparent stately house. Today, with many leaving the abode, the edifice built for accommodating 20-25 has much fewer number of people gracing it. Though this has made room for providing enough privacy to every individual, but maybe after decades of living together, the absence of those gone leaves a void, making the scenario with space constraint but happy moments, more favourable.
My grandparents migrated from a village in UP to a bigger city in search of a better life for their children. When I became acquainted with the grand house which once was the centre of power and attraction in the small village, I was awed by the magnificence of the architecture and the grandeur of the influential abode. Unaware of the worldly affairs, I wondered why my grandparents left this beauty! But like everything, this migration process also came to cycles as we (my siblings & myself) started moving out of our native place, relocating to a metro city to achieve heights in our corporate careers. I again wonder, who will grace this place we call home today, after all in my generation find a business someplace else. Will this house also be awarded the epithet of the antique ancestral home?!
In this process of change over time, the grandparents have succumbed to old age and left the world, and the grand children have moved out in search of prospects of a better life, it is the line of parents that remain to cherish and maintain the ancestral property. They stay in only a few rooms, with the remaining stay closed. Cobwebs and dust seem to be the new residents of these rooms. Once in a while, the rooms are cleaned, everything brought back to its place, maybe bringing back memories of the good old times when it was still an animated place.
As large swathes of mankind relocate to bigger cities in search of better opportunities, leaving behind the houses received in patrimony, they accept to live in miniature places – the only available space which the megalopolis has to offer! It is fascinating to see how minicondos and flats are replacing the large open houses. It’s like a choice one makes – whether to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond. Maybe all fishes are looking out for the varied experiences of the bigger pond, and so the smaller pond seem to be left with corals which may soon reach a state of extinction.
Are these antiques, pieces of architecture signifying change –yes for sure! But is it a good change or not – time will only tell!! With due course of time, present always transitions to become the past, and then slowly a part of tomorrow’s history. These houses are also in the process of becoming history. Are they simply materialistic collaterals which are compromised in the process of human evolution? The architecture from many civilisations that we read about in our history books – were also once home to some people. But clearly, as generations progressed, the ancestors, their properties and their provenance were forgotten. Will these beautiful homes be also just left bereft of any emotional connect with due course of time, and simply become a part of archaeology of tomorrow? While cleaning the cobwebs and dust from those closed rooms, are we cleaning away the emotional history of that place? Is it the sacrifice that we make for the sake of progress and prosperity of the ever evolving species?