Each corner and carefully chosen piece in this spacious house at Diamond Hill, Vellayambalam, has a story that speaks volumes about the time and thought Bindu Rajagopal and Rajagopal have lavished on their heritage home.
Giving all the credit to his wife, Dr. Bindu, Rajagopal says she was the one who painstakingly planned the décor and furnishing of their home after its renovation about 10 to 11 years ago. Built in 1928 by Dewan Nanoo Pillai’s grand niece Elankath Madhavi Amma and her husband, Judge Padmanabha Pillai, the house, now called Saroj Elankath, was not much lived in as the couple also had property in Nagercoil, which was then a part of erstwhile Travancore.
“Their daughter Sarojini Amma and her husband, P. Narayana Pillai, lived in the house. Unfortunately, both of them passed away when Rajan [Rajagopal] was still a child and since then the house had been rented out to various public and private agencies. It was about 10 years ago that we decided to start living here. Architect Chandramohan took on the difficult task of renovating a nearly 100-year-old structure for a family of four,” says Bindu. She named the house Saroj Elankath in memory of her mother-in-law.
The 70-cent plot lay on one side of Diamond Hill and the entrance to the house had 18 steps. The house was built according to the lay of the land. Like many similar houses built in those days, open corridors connected the main structure to the kitchen and bathrooms.
The renovation was done without demolishing the structure or altering its innate charm. Chandramohan and Bindu decided to elevate the piece of land in front of the house, thus reducing the number of steps to the front veranda. Both the sides of the open veranda were extended. A bedroom was added on one side and the other extension became a quiet, sheltered, open space with charupadi (inclined built-in seating).
The huge sloping roof was taken apart carefully and replaced with four separate roofs. The roof over the open, inverted L-shaped veranda does not have a loft and one can see the seasoned timber frame supporting the tiles. Lime-plaster was used to construct the walls, which have double the thickness of usual walls. “It was so difficult to break,” recalls Bindu. The wooden shutters of the windows were replaced with glass. The worked, wooden panels and railings in some places were used to make furniture.
Doors were made bigger and the corridor enclosed with a skylight that makes the formal dining room well-lit. An open courtyard was added to a side of the dining room. Bathrooms were added adjacent to the bathroom and the kitchen modernised completely. Living quarters for domestic help was also incorporated into the main structure.
The basement of the split level house, accessed with the help of a beautiful spiral staircase that leads downstairs, was turned into a makeshift gymnasium, library and so on. Bindu plans to have a home theatre too.
Today, the 5,500 sq feet Saroj Elankath is an elegant and gracious bungalow that is perfectly in sync with the past and the present. A palm-lined drive leads to the house that now stands on an elevated ground that gently slopes downwards. The 18 steps are gone. Instead the front portion has been split into three landscaped grounds with a path in the middle that leads to the capacious garage behind the house. The ascent to the porch has been made easier. Grand old mahogany trees and new bamboo completely shelter the house in a green curtain.
One side of the porch has been furnished with Spartan simplicity. Cane blinds and the moody skies make it a space with a character as the sun and the clouds create interesting patterns on the ground. Tall heavy doors open to the charmingly done up living room. Unlike many houses of this kind, Bindu does not clutter the space with bric-a-brac, brass collections or boring ‘antiques’.
Murals by Suresh Muthukulam, all done with vegetable dyes, are aesthetically placed on the walls and so are a few Tanjore paintings. One can catch glimpses of the open courtyard with its frangipani tree and chairs placed on one side of the courtyard. Comfortable rosewood furniture, all picked up by Bindu, enhance the charm of the living room. The colour scheme in each room accentuates the graciousness of the house. Doors from the living room lead to two bedrooms and a formal dining room. The skylight and courtyard flood the room with natural light. The highlight is a superb painting of Dewan Nanoo Pillai, which Bindu had recreated from an old painting that was there in a cousin’s house.
“Most of the descendants of the Dewan have a painting of their illustrious ancestor but I wanted an artistically done painting and so I requested Bhavageetham to do one for me,” says Bindu.
The same attention to detail can be seen in Bindu’s sons’ room, a boudoir-cum-family room that open into the dining room and a cosy informal dining space filled with family memorabilia and a collage of family photographs.
The boys’ room has a wooden staircase and a mezzanine floor that accommodates their library, study table and so on; a niche that must be the dream of every youngster.
The boudoir has a pleasant arrangement of chairs to sink into and converse, read or watch television.
The master bedroom with its red colourscape has select pieces of furniture that Bindu picked up over the years. Attached to it is a walk-in wardrobe and a roomy bathroom. The bedroom opens to a kind of balcony with a picturesque view of the verdant greenery stretching behind the house.
Bindu and Rajagopal say that since the house has plenty of greenery and thick walls, it absorbs most of the heat, dust and noise, making the rooms an oasis of quietude.
(A column on houses in and around the city that are more than 50 years old)
