Assignment 2 :Theory Of Settlement

GOD OF SMALL THINGS
A review of Ayemenem architecture.

Ayemenem is a small town in Kottayam, Kerala. The maternal home of Esthappen and Rachel and the main setting for God of Small Things by Arundati Roy. It is a story about the childhood experiences of this pair of fraternal twins who become victims of social prejudices and forbidden love. The novel captures the prominent facets of life in Kerala, the caste system and the Syrian Christian way of life. In the story, the small things in the surroundings build up, translate into people's behavior and affect their lives.

The Ayemenem house is representative of many 19th century homes found in and around Kottayam and its backwaters. The Syrian Christian owners of the time being wealthy traders, these were considerably posh houses when originally built. The book describes the house as a grand old place.

It had greying white walls and deep verandas that stayed cool even under the scorching midday sun. The damp air had made the plaster warp and disuse had let the window panes get clotted with dust and grease. The steep tiled roof had grown dark and mossy with age and rain. The interesting features of the house are its wood craft and joinery. The triangular wooden frames fitted into the gables are described to have ornamental flowers, wolves and iguanas carved onto them.

The house had an elevated plinth. Nine steps were required to climb from the driveway to the  front verandah. This gave the elevation an air of importance and grandeur. A highly polished traditional Kerala red cement flooring was laid. It took the whites of nine hundred eggs to complete. Doors were made of four shutters of panelled teak. Two at the top and two at the bottom. This enabled ladies to keep the bottom half closed while doing chores that did not require them to step out of the house. Brass was used for hinges and door handles.

The driveway sloped down towards the bottom of the slight hill that the house stood on. The house overlooked an ornamental garden around which the gravel driveway looped. It was a lush maze of dwarf hedges, rocks and gargoyles. There was a shallow pool in the centre of it all, with pink plaster of paris gnomes at each corner and a blooming lotus plant in the middle.

God of Small Things gives us an interesting insight into the customs and traditions of the Syrian Christian families of Kerala. It not only teaches us about their lifestyle, but also about the history and architecture of the place.

Assignment 1 :Theory Of Settlement

  A CHILDHOOD MEMORY

One of the most profound memories of my childhood is that of a day out at the beach. It had a funny name starting with B like most beaches in Goa. It was one of those beaches that neither got too crowded nor too lonely. There was a small bunch of families and foreigners littered on its clean, white sands. The water looked calm and safe for swimming. It was a perfect day for me. My dad, my mom and me. I was five years old.

Some twenty beach umbrellas dotted the beach. There were many red, blue and bright yellow ones. A few were multi-coloured with cartoon surfer guy pictures on a frothy beach. Locals had put up some quaint little beach shacks also. These also had multi-coloured umbrella roofs, with pictures of thick, shady coconut groves and waves in the sea. They served everything from ice cold drinks and beer to spicy Goan cuisine. My dad got me a leamon ice drink and himself a beer.

The local tourists of the place wore shorts to swim. The girls wore t-stirts, the guys did not. My mom told me that though I was a girl, I was young and did not require a t-shirt. I found this in stark contrast with the white people. Their shorts were tighter and shorter. Some of them wore tops, some of them did not. Both girls and boys. My mom said that they were sunbathers stripping off to catch some sun. Most of the brown men there were gawking at the white girls without tops. I was told that this was not because they were bad people, but because they were not used to it.

We found a part of the beach that was littered with broken mother of pearl and other shells. I noticed people picking up the good looking ones to keep in their shell collections. Further along the length of the beach, we found the soft sand sloping up into a rocky outcrop. There were small hill like structures there that we decided to explore. slightly higher up along the slope, we found little caves with clay pots and utensils inside. We also found drawings on the cave walls. I thought that they must have been left there by cave men. My mom thought that it was more likely that travelling sadus (hermits) had taken refuge there some time in the near past.

Though I still cant remember the name of the beach, I can never forget the experiences I had there. It was here that I had my first major adventure and started my first shell collection.