travelogue: MY HOUSE-MY PARADISE

My House-My Paradise

Myself,my husband L.R.G.K and my one year old son BalaMurali lived in Mylapore after change of job ,taken by L.R.G.K.from Thulukkapatti in Virudhunagar district to Madras in 1969.Our House was just opposite to Kapaleeswarar Temple and our portion was in the first floor When we found out that our son was mentally challanged child by birth,we had to think of his upbringing in a diciplined way .We could not get needed fecilities to teach him his daily routine in day to day life. We struggled &suffered very much with one bathroom and one toilet that too in the downstairs.

One day it striked us Why dont we have our ownhouse, there we can make our own fecilities according to our needs ,particularly to our son Balu.The spark of constructing a new and own house came in to our thought because of our lovable first special child Balu. We were ready to give anything for his comfortable upbringing. When the thought arose in L.R.G.K.'mind ,he started to put it into action.

He searched for a suitable place, that i s it shoud be nearer to his office, to be calm., easy access to other places, school,market place and nearby provision stores ect.First of all our son should be happy ,away from a noisy township to a calm environment. we bought a site in Plot No.120, A..V.M.Avenue.Virugambakkam village
chennai 92 for constructing our own house.
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The foundation stone was laid in November1973 after Boomi Pooja for the construction of a small single bed,indipendant house with compound walls
The project .hasbeen finished in April 1974. Our house has been named " Jai Nivas" . We entered in to our dream house in an auspecious day in May 1974, after perfoming house warming ceremony , Ganapathi&Navagraha poojas as told by elders.

We had invited close relatives and friends for the occasion . My husband's sisters, Brothers in laws and their children, my mother-in -law, from myside,my sister,her husband,my mother ,my first younger brother and his wife,second younger brother and some close friends came ,joined and enjoyed the function happily. They all made the function a grand success..

Finally we have shifted our residence from Mylapore to Virugambakkam.From then onwards PlotNo.120,A.V.M. Avenue,Virugambakkam.Che.92 has become our permanent address.

At that time our colony was less populated,can see houses situated here and there.I used to take Balu for walking in the evenings. My husband's office was in nine miles distance from the house . He used to go to the office in the cycle and would return at seven or eight o' clock in the late evening.Till then i have to take care of my son.

I love nature in all its forms from my childhood. i like plants and flowers. I l ike to watch the sky with glittering stars and the moon in the night .I like to watch the peculier and innate habits of small animals and birds around our house. Iam very happy to say that i was able to enjoy all these small pleasures in my life in my new house.

I have planted four coconut saplings in each corner of my ground. Banana trees namely Karpooravalli& Poovan and even Nendran vazai were also planted, and they yielded abundant fruits and we used to distribute the exess to our neighbours. Coconut trees grew and they started to yield coconuts after five years. Like children till now they are supporting us by giving lot of fruits which we will sell to our neighbours for meager costs.

i cannot forget that we had a big mango tree giving Rumani mangoes. I used to prepare mango picles ,and variety of thokku, mango rice with its unriped mangoes..We enjoyed its yields for more than 25 years. After that it has got trunk disease and slowly died in a month.

I put seed of japanese lemon in the backyard , it grew slowely. and blossomed with flowers and they turned in to small , orange colour and orange flavored fruits .
We can make tasty juice . , rasam and tasty rise with that fruits.

In the frontyard i have different types of flower plants. jasmine ,hibiscus of different colours, Nandiyavattai,and pink arali are some among them . They give not only pleasure to me but the flowers are used in our daily pooja to our Deities. I also have some medicinal herbs plants,which are uesd to make quick home medicines for
the children.

Though i was happy about my house and other things , the incurable status of my first son,mentally challenged one,made me depressed both in mind and body wise . As parents we have tried in sevaral ways but in vain.

I lost hope in life and led a meaningless life in this world. At that time like drops of life saving water for a nomad in the desert, the benevolant God ,blessed me with a male child after a lapse of seven years. He was born in 1976. He was an Angel sent by God to getrid of our sorrow. He has been the pupil of my eye for ever.He was named Partha sarathi, and we loved him very much.

After that, for the first time we have shiftetd our residence to Royapettah , to put my first son in a special school to give special education to him. At that time ,my second son Sarathi was only seven months old. But Balu was not benifited by this arrangement any way. So we returned to our house and stuckh with this house there after till now.

Before Sarathi's birth my mother -in -law passed away in the same year 1976. So when we returned to our home , I had to be alone with two children in the house while he was away with his job.. So we planned . to make partition in the house and let a portion for the rent. As per thought , we let out the side portion for the tenant so that somebody would be there for our help . Besides that it also gave some financial support also.

At that time Sarathi has started to go for school and we put him in L.K.G.Class.

He studied his primary classes in Puthra school,near by our house. He has been a lovable child from the beginning. He studied well in the class and didnot give any trouble both in school or in the house. From 4th standered to 12thstandard,he studied in A.V.Meyyappan Metriculation school.

As we felt the small main portion of the house was not comfortable for the growing family ,we wanted to build the first floor to meet our needs. The construction of the first floor was completed in 1986,and we have shifted to the first floor house with three bedrooms. we are living here from that time onwards.

After doing his 12th std. Sarathi joined Computer Engineering Course in S.R.M.Engineering College. Myself and my husband were very happy when he came out as a fullfledged computer engineering degree holder. Then only i realised that there is a Supreme Power over us and guiding and helping us in our life.

We let out the two portions for rent .During these years ,many tenents came ,lived and went out as per their convenience. i have met different types of characters by letting our house to them.

Side by side small pet animals like cats and squirrels also live and roam around our house. Twice or thrice cats delivered kitten under our bureau in our bedroom .Sparrows used to build nests in the laufts and after some days i could hear the young ones' chirping when their mother bird put the prey in to their mouth . I enjoyed these scenes often .But after putting doors and closed the laufts i coul d not see these beatiful scenes.

Many functions have been celebrated in course of time both in our house and in our tenants 'houses. Our sons Upanayanam, L.R.G.K's Shashtiabthapoorthi, Sarathi's marraiage reception, L.R.G.K's 70th Birthday-Beemaradha santhi, Our chella peran 's visit in 2011 for his 1st Aayush homam celebration with his parents Sarathi & Sangeetha are some of the happy memorable events that have been performed in this house.

To your surprise we have constructed a small portion in the second floor before two years, Including this we have three portions to let out.

One surprising incident that i have to mention is , in 2011 three male babies were born to each one of our three tenants in the gap of one are two months .I was very happy to see three newborn babies at a time .

Some bad events also happened in 2011. My mother N.Rajam and my sister-in law Jayalakshmi , expired in the lapse of 12 days. I felt very sorry for my loving persons' demise .

My history is my house's history. As i grow old she has also grow old. For the past few years drainage problem has been a menace during the rainy season.This year it was unbearable. we thought to renovate or replace a new one in this place.

we discussed about it with our affectionate son Sarathi. Without any hesitation he agreed to construct a new house for us in this year itself. His wife Sangeetha ,my daughter-in - law has also agreed for the proposal. Both are jem of persons. He found out an apt builder after a pain taking job. My husband and myself also will render our cooperation for this great project.

My first son BalaMurali is also living with us for the past six months as he is sick and weak.It gives mental peace for L.R.G.k.&me.

The work for the new house will start after the Tamil New Years Day -Nandana Varudam .

So we are shifting our residence ,temporarily to No.18,2nd main road,A.V.M. Avenue.virugambakkam.Chennai 92

For the short period , my Motherhouse" JAINIVAS " will take rest under the earth and will rise up step by step and will reappear as a NEW STRUCTURE- In A NEWFORM OF--"-JAINIVAS " in her own place.

My beautiful calm old lady ,my sweet home, says a big Adieu now to us who are living and related to her and will resurrect with full of vigour&glow like a phoenix fro m fire .. Bye Bye now .

Jaya Krishnan
11-4-2012
Some outer view pictures of our old house at plot no.120,6th street A.V.M.Avenue.VIrugambakkam .
Chennai-92.