Jacinth is a precious gem or a flower with a reddish hue. Although the whitewashed Jacinth on the main road that connects Vellayambalam and Kowdiar does not have a reddish hue, it is indeed a precious gem for Lalitha Menon who lives there.
Situated a little way from the main road in a crescent shaped bay, the sprawling three-storeyed house with its circular façade, located opposite Raj Bhavan, was built in the late fifties by U.S. Nair, the first head of the Department of Statistics, University of Kerala.
Lalitha remembers her father Dr. Nair buying the 23-cent plot from a family that was related to the royal family of erstwhile Travancore. Once upon a time, the same family owned the grand house in Belhaven that has now been acquired by the Reserve Bank of India. Lalitha remembers that the stables of Belhaven used to be located in the plot where Jacinth was built. The airy, sunlit house is a labour of love. Her father had it built it on the then princely sum of Rs. two lakh. It was designed by J.C. Alexander, who was the first chief town planner and consulting architect to the Government of Kerala.
The name of the house, says Lalitha, was selected by her mother, Saraswathy Nair. “She enjoyed reading and wanted to study but was married off at an early age. However, she still used to read a lot and she found this name in a book. That was how it came to be called Jacinth,” says Lalitha.
Built on a steeply sloping piece of land, Jacinth has a driveway that leads to the garage. Both the ground floor and first floor of the split-level house is open to the old fashioned garden that has a profusion of flowering plants like purple bougainvillea, shoe flower (Hibiscus), pavizhamalli (coral jasmine), rajamalli and kanakambaram (firecracker flower). Perfumed by the delicate fragrance of the Naga poo (cannonball flower), her garden near the old kitchen is an oasis of quietude. Bamboo murmurs in a corner of the garden while different kinds of Hibiscus give a dash of colour. Long ago, the old fashioned kitchen was on the ground floor but once the five siblings (four brothers and a sister) left home, Saraswathy relocated the kitchen to the first floor and an open place adjacent to it became the dining room and a cosy living area. Brass utensils that were once the reigning queens in the kitchen have been displayed in the dining room.
A huge, ancient woodapple tree is decked in pink as it is ready to burst into fruit. “Then it is covered with birds and anyone sitting here can tune in to bird song,” says Lalitha.
Many of the windows in the house open to views of fruit trees or a splash of greenery. One of the windows in the drawing room filled with antique furniture and lovely art work opens to the view of a mandarin orange that was given to her by a friend.
Portraits of her maternal and paternal grandmothers adorn a boudoir-like space while art work Lalitha has collected during her long stays abroad as the wife of former ambassador K.P.S. Menon adorn the walls of the house. Two of the works that resemble paintings of Japanese scenery are, in fact, fine embroidery, which her father picked up during his stint in Japan. She also has a M.F. Hussain original on her walls – a work in charcoal.
Over the years the house has been renovated many times.
“It was built while I was doing my final year of graduation in Government Women’s College. I must have been 19 or 20 then. My room was on the top most floor. In those days, this stretch of road used to be a quiet green avenue. Late at night, we could hear the gentle jingle of bells as bullock carts made their way to the market. The open space on the top was not covered then. Now it has been covered completely and used as a bedroom. The original red oxide of the floor was replaced with yellow and jade green mosaic tiles,” she recalls.
Lalitha points out the walls are so thick that even the masons found it difficult to break down a wall when the house was being renovated. “In the late fifties and sixties we could see Belhaven from our house and the view was beautiful. It was houseful when my brothers and their families used to come down for the vacations. After my husband retired we decided to settle down here for many reasons. By then the view and the quiet roads had all been altered. But I have happy memories of this house that my father built,” says Lalitha.
(A fortnightly column on houses in and around the city that are more than 50 years old)
