Looking at the light blue house set towards a corner of a large compound opposite Lakshmi Hospital on Diwans Road, one would be hard pressed to tell that 60 years ago, this structure was nothing more than a long hall with a couple of rooms to the side. Mankuttathil, purchased in the early 50s by B. Govinda Rao, who started the popular Bharat Tourist Home (BTH), has put out new wings and gained a storey over the years, evolving constantly according to the needs of its occupants.
Step inside and it can be hard to keep track of space and distance, with the myriad changes that the house has undergone giving each section a unique identity. Now inhabited by Govinda Rao’s son G. Gopinathan, one of the current managing partners of BTH, the large structure juxtaposes mosaic, marble and green oxide flooring within a single line of vision, and covers the elegance of teakwood doors with the simplicity of mosquito frames. “The house was bought a few years before I was born, and my early memories are vague but I recall that the central hall was the dominant area, with a couple of bedrooms to the side,” says Gopinathan.
The sitting room that welcomes visitors to the house is adorned with the many awards won by Govinda Rao during his 95 year lifespan, with an image of the inauguration of BTH featuring prominently among these. One of the four bedrooms in the house diverge from this sitting room, while another branches off from the small room that connects the sitting room to a larger hall beyond. “My father had a penchant for modifying the structure, and there would always be some work happening,” smiles Gopinathan as he points out the green oxide floor of the room. “The door leading from this room to the hall was a large teak one with windows on either side, which my father replaced in favour of a metal grille frame,” he adds.
Teak is a recurring theme here, with doorframes and windowsills and even the staircase and its banisters are made of teak. “One banister was removed so the wood could be used elsewhere in the house,” says Gopinathan, indicating the telltale cement marks on the side of the wooden staircase that once held its mounting.
The ground floor also houses a pooja room and two out of the three kitchens in the house, one built specifically for the purposes of pooja and another built on the upper storey by Gopinathan’s younger brother Jaigopal, an architect, when he stayed at the house.
The second storey, which houses two more bedrooms, was also constructed by Govinda Rao, though modified extensively by Jaigopal. A small kitchen with dark counters strikes a contrast against the pale walls, and another room at the end, facing the front of the house and now filled with crates, used to serve as Jaigopal’s office. The window sills here are coated in red oxide as is the floor of the balcony outside, where it has not fared as well. A spiral staircase from the courtyard, covered in blooming jasmine, serves as an outside connection to the first floor, while another one connects the office directly to the road on the other side of the house. The walls of the covered balcony are adorned in artwork depicting a climber, almost making it look like the jasmine has continued its growth along the walls. The main spiral stair now covers a corner of a curved outer wall that Gopinathan likens to the Vistarama screen once used in Shenoys theatre.
Gopinathan says that a picture of Goddess Lakshmi, with a soft light illuminating it from below, and an ancient clock that rests above it, have been in the house as long as he can remember, one of the few constants throughout its history of change. Even the courtyard has seen its share, the open space surrounded by potted plants was once overgrown on one side, Gopinathan recalls, and where a small well stands there was a stone-lined pond where Gopinathan and his five siblings along with other neighbourhood children used to swim in the evenings. Right in front of the car porch and the veranda, which were also not part of the original structure, sits a swing set that Jaigopal installed.
One major event in the history of the house that he recalls is his sister’s wedding in 1972. “It was a grand affair, and a pandal was erected on the grounds of the house. The house adjacent belonged to ex-minister Paul P. Mani, and he even took down the dividing wall to give us more space for the function. In the evening there was a concert by P Jayachandran,” he remembers.
Gopinathan admits that he does not share his father and brother’s interest in modification, and has made no changes of his own, explaining that the house has remained largely unchanged for the last 15 years.
With Govinda Rao having passed away in 2011 and Jaigopal now based in Eroor, Mankuttathil seems destined to retain its present character, a patchwork quilt of design philosophies interspersed with memories.
