Changing face of houses in villages

Concrete structures come up under Indiramma housing scheme

Chaturashala bavanthi, the old type house in Maddur mandal in Warangal

The lifestyle and habits in villages are fast changing and so also, the physical outlook. The beautiful, typical and old model houses are replaced by concrete buildings, partly thanks to the Indiramma housing, flagship programme of the State government.

Every village boasted of houses of different kinds – thatched roof houses, tiled houses, Chathurashala Bhavanthi and ‘Gadi’ or the manor houses. The type of houses distinguished the people on their financial position and the rank each held in the society.

A few financially sound families in the villages used to have the

Chathurashala Bhavanthi which was very popular in those days. Such houses were seen in old Telugu or Tamil movies.

Aesthetic in structure, there were four huge rooms in four corners leaving open space in the middle to allow the sunlight and rain to fall directly inside the house. The rainwater then flowed into a drain that led into the backyard garden.

The room in each corner were again divided into many portions which comfortably accommodated joint families.

However, they are no more seen in villages. Construction of each house demanded services of the carpenter, iron smith, potter, mason and others. “Potters have stopped making the U-curve tiles suitable for such houses. Morever, the carpenters of today lack the craftsmanship,” explains septuagenarian Immadi Agam Reddy of Bhairanpally village in Maddur mandal.

According to him, those houses functioned like a thermostat protecting the inhabitants from extreme temperatures in summer and winter.

Now, thanks to the Indiramma housing scheme, most houses, particularly those belonging to the poor, are being replaced by the concrete buildings seemingly reducing the gap between rich and poor “Construction of Chathurashala Bhavanthi type house is much more costly and involves great labour.

The concrete house, on the other hand, is easy to build and hence people prefer them,” he points out.