A small unpretentious brass plaque announces the 114 year-old Valavi Bungalow on Market Road. A century is a long time. The house has stood witness to chapters in history textbooks. It has seen the city become; it saw canals with their goods-laden boats recede giving way to arterial roads and buildings; it looked on as World War II in distant Europe touched Ernakulam in the form of bunkers dug in anticipation of bomb attacks.
A hundred and fourteen years ago, in 1900, the late Peter Valavi, founder of Valavi and Company, built this house. Those days the land around the house was much more, today it stands on 30 cents. Valavi was an important personage in the Cochin State - as businessman, as a councillor in the erstwhile Ernakulam Municipality’s first council, as bench magistrate and as the founder manager of the Bank of Cochin. Today it is home to his grandson, businessman Kuriakose G. Valavi.
This 3,000 - 3,500 sq.ft. house, Kuriakose says, was the first double-storied building on the north side of Banerjee Road. “Only royalty and high class Hindus could build in areas near the Siva Temple. Christians built in this area,” says Kuriakose. It is not built in the traditional Kerala style, it is more of a bungalow the kind British officials built in India. The British, unable to live in low-ceilinged houses typical of Kerala built high-ceilinged bungalows – “they built bungalows of these types around Tripunithura,” Kuriakose says. Those might have inspired Peter Valavi to build in this style. He didn’t use contractors, he built the house on his own, Kuriakose adds.
As railway contractor to the Madras Railway Company, he picked up the strict quality control standards of the British and implemented those while constructing the house. The house is built of chengal (laterite) from the foundation upwards. Good quality, seasoned teak has been used for the woodwork, which explains why most of the wooden flooring survives. “I have heard that when workers tried cutting it stone sparks flew. The quality control is the reason why the house still stands.”
For some time in its early years of existence the house was rented out to the Chief Engineer of the Cochin State who was an Englishman. “I think he was called Moody. He rode horses and we had a layam, stable, behind the house. It no longer exists.”
Structurally no changes have been made, except in 2002, when maintenance was done. The woodwork which supported the roof was decaying and for safety’s sake the roof was redone. Concrete beams replaced wooden ones to strengthen the structure. The work on the roof was done on the attic, above the two floors. That is when he saw something that still baffles him.
“The flooring on the attic was made of some kind of clay. We knew that there would be a wooden floor under the four or five inch layer of mud or clay flooring, since the floor below has wooden rafters. As the workers went about removing the mud we saw something that shocked us. A layer of leaves, as green as freshly plucked, under the clay and above the wood. It was possibly used as treatment for termites. I haven’t heard anybody talk about it.” He opens a plastic carry bag and shows the leaves as dry as 114-year-old could be. “Within three days they dried up. I haven’t had the time but I want to find out what leaves these are.”
Other minor changes have been made such as reducing the height of the ceiling. But the change has been to, as Kuriakose puts it, make living in the house more comfortable. For cross ventilation purposes, windows were added to a wall in the dining room. The prayer room is another addition. The kitchen and the toilet, for instance are no longer outside the house. The cowshed has been put to other uses.
The ground floor has three rooms and the first floor has two. One of the bedrooms boasts two cast iron beds, a King’s bed (for men) and a Queen’s bed (for women) estimated to be as old as the house, only the shine on the brass work has dimmed a bit. An elaborate glass chandelier again of the same vintage dominates the drawing room.
The flooring is wood and red oxide, the wood flooring is the same as before. But the wood flooring is remarkably well kept and Kuriakose attributes it to a coating of linseed oil, “it is easy to maintain.”
Every change, big or small, structural or cosmetic, has been made keeping in mind the character of the house. Maintaining a house this old, built in a time far away using forgotten technology is tough but Kuriakose and his family are doing a commendable job of it. “Builders come and offer penthouses on their high-rises. But I am not interested…I like my house.” Simply and succinctly summed up.
