It’s a house so old that no one alive can put a date on its vintage. “It has been 175 ever since I can remember,” says Rathi Ravindran who is in her early 50s. The ettukettu on SRM Road belongs to her mother Valsala Menon of the Kelamangalam family. Septuagenarian Valsala then hazards a guess and pegs it at 200, with a qualifier “it might be older and no, I don’t know who built it.”
On the extremely crowded road, where houses sit cheek to cheek, a narrow road splices the cluster and leads to the house. Under threatening rain clouds one realises that it is a beautiful house to enjoy the rains. The nadumuttam (courtyard inside the house) lets in the rain and the elements. Two sides of the nadumuttam have rooms, while the other two are lined with windows. The ara (granary) which faces the main entrance, serves as the puja room. The main wooden ara hasn’t been opened in years. The nadumuttam along with the ara and the nelavara kuzhi - where grain and coconuts were stored – harks back to a rich agrarian past. The nelavara kuzhi, which is on one side of the house, has been sealed off.
The ettukettu once stood on two acres; today it sits on a very spacious 10 cents. “It used to be cool in the old days when trees surrounded the house,” says Malini Nam, Rathi’s sister. Time, and practical constraints have shrunk the compound around the ettukettu and the trees chopped off to make space for the city.
The history maybe sketchy, but the house has many stories. It was home to Kesavan Elayadam, Valsala’s maternal grandfather, who was one of Ernakulam’s first land surveyors. “There was a cupboard full of hand-drawn sketches/map (land) of Ernakulam that he had etched. Termites got them. If there was a land dispute people would come to meet my grandfather to examine the map,” she says. There is another story of how music composer V. Dakshinamurthy, social reformer Mannathu Padmanabhan and writer Puthezhathu Rama Menon lived in the house for a week as the guest of Valsala’s father, Mulloor Sankarankutty Menon. He was the secretary of Paramara Temple’s Haindava Sewa Sangham, “they were in town for some function,” Valsala says. Kalanilyam Krishnan Nair was another friend, “the Kalanilyam vehicle used to be parked here. It used to ferry us to school at Chittoor, along the way we would pick up my friends also,” she adds.
The house has six rooms, all of which are full because Rathi and her sisters, all of whom are based in West Asia, are in town. A part of the house has been rented out. Not too many structural changes have been made except for the bathrooms that have been attached to the rooms. Long ago the bathrooms were on the furthest corner of the compound, “getting there was an adventure which involved some preparation,” Malini jokes. Two leaf paintings by lyricist Chittoor Gopi’s father, one of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, adorn the outer walls .
The kitchen used to be outside the house, but not anymore. The flooring has been redone to concrete. The main rafters, however, look like they have stood the test of time. “In the old days there used to be a sadya everyday. There used to be so many family members and guests too,” Valsala says.
The huge family has branched out around the world but the tharavadu is the meeting point. Many seasons ago, the house saw weddings; it has watched many women do the Thiruvathirakali on the Thiruvathira on Dhanu maasam evenings.
It has even starred in a few films, “most leading actors including Mammootty and Dileep have come here for films. The only person who hasn’t come here is Mohanlal,” Valsala says.
Dileep’s hit film Mayamohini was shot at the house. The other films shot here include Maanathe Kottaram , Gulumaal and 3 Man Army .
As she see us off, Rathi points to a lion embossed above the main entrance, “we don’t know why it is there but it has always been there.” One can’t help wishing he could speak and tell us stories from long ago.
