The Manachai House

Once again, my sister has depressing stuff about my real mother. What the heck is new? Same old stuff with new stuff. Grandma has passed on and the transition has been tough even though mom hated her since she got married. Right now she needs to be loved and not given (not, just don't kill her without my permission. Joking). I hope you potential visitors can see her while I'm here in the United States making plans to visit her for next year.

In Tamilnadu, old mansions survive in many villages and towns including my mom's or grandmother's home (whomever or whatever). There was a Chettiar caste that became wealthy due to their money-lending business to farmers in Burma which resulted in these mansions in the early 1900's. But when Burma ceded with India in 1935 and India became independent in 1947, many Chettiars lost their wealth and left for the cities. Some use their city earnings to keep their old homes intact with remaining relatives. Many had to abandon the homes with no buyers or sell portions of the mansion to business men for office spaces. My grandmother though widowed (Grandfather died of TB in 1945) without a "State Farm" man kept the home due to help from relatives and my father. Here is my dissertation of the Manachai house.

The house is an old early 21st century home, a Chettiar home under the influence of many forms mostly Victorian and Mughal architecture. Location is Manachai village. It is 250 miles south of Chennai (Madras). From the outside, it has plastered walls about 10 feet high with advertisements of soap and political parties painted on it (you can do that at private homes but its changing). At the peak of the wall, it has a decorative, ornamental design curves on top from right to left with a walkway separating the two. On the right side connecting to the decorative wall, there is a gate to allow cars, cycles, horse and yak wagons to enter and exit.

The place is more of a miniature military fort than a home. First, the side walls before you enter the door. Inside the walls, there is an area to park your bikes (If it rains no roof to cover). As you enter the door, you see a chessboard style walkway connecting to side-doors to the bungalow and to the bath house and a place to leave horse carts and other equipment. There is a small area to park and feed horses or yaks. From the side of the feeding area, a converted small home exists as well as a walkway. The surrounding areas of the home are trees and farmland.

Four elements to deal with as you enter the house or fort. When you leave the chessboard area, walk a few feet and look to your left-side, you see an outdoor Loggia style building with arcade outdoor gallery effect from the two roofs except the top roof covering the tinted color window was taken off due to birds and bats causing a mess (Gargoyles don’t work). The outdoor corridor is a rectangular shaped area with caked hard reddish tiles made of clay or something. The orange mission tile roof is covered to the ornamental part of the gallery. There are Spanish and Italian influence in these homes concerning roofing and the water way system from the inside to the outside.

From the left-side, there is a row of stone pillars in a row in the entrance area. That area has iron bars with a door to open to prevent bats from entering the area and rolled up straw mats to prevent rain. As you enter, a sitting area exists on both sides of the walkway going towards the inside of the building. Ceiling fans are provided on both sides to get away from the heat. I believe those sides were made to lay equipment due to smoothness of the surface. The surface feels comfortable during hot days but when it gets cold at night, get a blanket. Behind the sitting area, there are window shutters from the inside as well a barbed-wire window overlooking a storage area.

On that inside entrance, a decorative door exists which takes a big shaped key to open. As you enter, you see the majestic presence of this two-layer high wall with windows being on top and a portrait my great grandfather, his wives and adopted son being at the bottom next to the paintings above the columns. Because of the high ceiling, a two-sided window appears with tinted combinations of red, yellow, blue, and green in rows. There are four or five of these windows from the entrance side and the front end side with my great-grandfather at below center. The sun shines through the windows at the paintings of Hindu Gods and Goddess next to the photo my great-grandfather. On the ends, four huge mirrors reflect the building from top to bottom on opposite sides. It is suspended face down by chains attached to a wall on the top end with metal stubs holding the bottom end. This holds true with the pictures. In between the mirrors from the ends, there are cupboards to store clothes.

On floor level, the slab walkway is of rectangular proportions. On the next tier floor are teal columns to swing around for fun, and a walkway with family pictures on the wall. On the other side of the wall is a small, meditation prayer room with black and white tiles, as well as storage room. This corridor has high ceilings with electric ceiling fans. There is a bedroom toward the cooking area, a storage room on the left end, and stairs going to the outdoor observation area. Every room and inside corridors has a plug contraption to allow water through connecting water duct from the inside to the outside. Before indoor plumbing, these ducts were put side by side along the outside walls of the house including the outhouse, yuck. Now that indoor plumbing is prevalent, most of the area has been sealed up but some remain.

As you go up the stairs, there is more storage room that you have window to see outside. In addition, another added storage room which requires the use of a step ladder to keep records, letter and receipts from the 1930’s and onwards. (You can get in shape just walking around on that or just lie on the ground and your body gets toned.) Purpose of these rooms, there were robberies and thievery going on then and now (check your in-laws before the outlaws). You can’t get enough of those rooms to hide and store. Interesting fact, that home was the first have electricity in Manachai from the 1920’s (Power was from Pallathur, the next village). You see those original wires from that deck coming into the inside.

Connected to that building, an open roof allows the sun to bake the rice seeds that you lay on the ground surrounded by columns and floor sheltered by the roof to store the rice in case of rain. Built courtyard style with the bungalows, there is a smoke house for outdoor cooking and indoor storage cupboard to keep the spices fresh as well as the meats. Lemon and lime are stored in the cupboards as well with the baskets of eggs dangling next to them. What a tangy smell effect to the senses! A modern refrigerator exists to store cold drinks; clay and metal pots are on top of the molded stoves; wood is place underneath the metal utensils to keep the fire burning; finally, a canister to store water for hand washing. As you walk the open area, you see the remaining water duct being molded into a modern pipeline connecting to a closed bathroom with a shower next to the bungalow area.

The bungalow area is an outdoor area surrounded by walls marking territory. The area consists of fruit trees such as coconuts, mangoes, kiwis, sapodillas, and berries. Palm trees exist as well as those leaf trees to cut down and use them as plates for food. You got those banyan trees for privacy, thin-branched shrubs, and paper trees where the trunk area seems to peel off like paper. Finally, a mini-farm exists to grow spinach, radishes, or other vegetables from the back end of the stable area.

When festivals and functions occur, we grow them here. Most times, we buy food from markets because birds, live chickens, and insects like fruits and vegetables just like we do. Likewise when you grow, circumstances like floods and droughts exists. They do come often and create terrible circumstances.

The bungalow is our institution and legendary status area. It is just not a home without it. A metal, steel hut structure with its corrugated orange, roof tiles of to allow rain to taper down. You walk up these steps with thin iron bars on the gates and further ahead, a room made of plastered walls. Before reaching the iron gates, you see the floors about one foot wide surround the building with orange cubed tiles. They seem to be made for pigeons, birds, squirrels, and chickens to congregate particularly when seeds or rice are there. Once again, the entrance area is large for storage and equipment availability surrounding that room. When rains come, folded straw mats come down to prevent water from seeping.

Inside the building has a simple room for guests, mediation, and a place to play cards at night. Likewise, it’s a great place to hide illegal activities involving booze and drugs. My real mother used the place to read, sleep, and weep. Grandmother sponsored our cousins, uncles, aunts, and father’s education and they spent their time studying in that room. Some stayed long, others very brief. My grandmother was very overbearing and honest about her agendas to her sponsorees (mom was in convent schools during my dad's time there). Yes, things happened in that room, some too graphic and some too tragic. Check your in-laws before the outlaws.

There is an outdoor well on the side and a concrete outhouse. As a kid, the well scared me to death because it was 30 feet deep with no protection or barriers except a tin roof connecting with the outhouse to protect bathers and poopers from the rain. It was just a hole in the ground with a rubber hose attached to a bucket over a wooden joint connecting the roof platform. Putting concrete was actually more dangerous than dirt because rain made it slippery. Concrete was put to make bathing easier without the dirt running into your feet and my grandmother’s laundry workers could slam the shirts, saris, and lungees on it. Only one person fell into that well and that was due to a suicide. Now, a wooden barrier is installed surrounding the well and a separate rock slab is put in place away from the well.


It is a long house with big lands. The place is kind of fun to go by every once in a while. You can be amused and entertained without effort to get through a day. Just ask the lizards, salamanders, bats, chickens, cows, yaks, monkeys, and other non-human living being that come by (Don’t worry, there are people to “push” them if they get out of hand like soldiers in war). The villagers are nice to outsiders even my mom with her background and knowledge in English. Her health is deteriorating as well as the house. Don't ask for money and don't give any! Only ask and give a hug. My sister can appreciate that!