Meet the neighbors

Once we settled down in the newly painted, gated and gardened(?) G40/4, we started to get to know the neighbors.

Obviously we lived in G40/4.

In G40/1 lived a family of 4, I can't remember all their names, but I do remember Vinod. Vinod's initials were M.K.Vinod and I think uncle's name was Karunakaran. Those days you never asked for adults' names - if I remember some of the adults' names in our block, that is because I probably had a personal relationship with them. Aunty was very nice and would let us all tramp up in her garden. Since they were the other corner quarters, they had a huge garden too. Vinod was in the same class as me and he had a little sister. Bordering their backyard was the backyard of another family that lived in the other block. They were the Rao brother's family. I remember Pallavi - she was my class too and all her uncles were very good painters - artists. I think we still own a watercolor one of them did for my Appa.

In G40/2 lived Ramakrishnan uncle. I really think he was married but his family lived in Kerala. His home was also home to a group of bachelor's who were his room-mates. SO we called his house the "Bachelor's quarters". He had a huge tree in his front yard and a even bigger mango tree in his backyard. He did not mind at all if we suttufied mangoes from his tree. So all our houses pickles came from his mango tree.

In G40/3 lived my favorite family, the Balakrishnans. I think I first befriended Vatsala aunty even before I became friends with her children. I used to visit with them EVERY SINGLE DAY. No, not to play with the kids, but to hang out with Vatsala aunty. I used to talk to her, then talk to her and talk to her some more. My god, thinking back she must have been one very patient person. I used to watch her buy fish everyday and clean it and cook it while she explained patiently to me, a pukka TamBram, the art of cleaning fish, cooking it without smelling fishy and also the art of extracting the fish bone so people would not choke over it. I would nod sagely - I think I just loved all the attention she showered on me. Her sons were Shibu and Shejil and her daughter was Lija. Lija was several years my senior - I think when we moved there, she was already in 8th standard or something like that. She was also very quiet, I have rarely witnessed her talk or yell or scream or anything my boisterous family would do. Shibu was the older of the 2 boys. he was kind of borderline quiet as well. Shibu and Shejil were in the same class and at least 3-4 years my seniors. Shibu had some health issues and missed a year and joined Shejil in the same class I think. Vijay and I used to follow these 2 around and torture them when Vatsala aunty was not available :-) Shejil taught me how to play my first game of cards. He was always such a patient guy and knew how to play with little kids. We all played cricket together. The only reason I was in that team was because my dad bought me a cricket set, so my condition was that if they were to  use it they had to have me on the team. Shibu used to call me "Malcolm Marshall" because I used to do this big show of running a long distance befor bowling a ball which would be far wide anyways. I just knew Balakrishnan uncle - but for some reason the moment he came home, I would rush out the door. I think as a child I was initimidated of him. He was sweet and did not say a unkind word. But I never got to know him like I knew Vatsala aunty. Of all our neighbors, I think the rest of my family was also very close to this one family.

In G40/8, right above us, lived Sudhi Matholi(I just recently know his last name), with his brother Suji and their parents. Sudhi was a year older that Vijay and a couple of  years younger than me. He was such a studious and meritorious learner. Kind of quiet, but used to come over and play with Vijay all the time. I can distincly remember Suji and uncle and aunty's faces peering at us from their high perch as we talked back and forth.

In G40/7, first lived Sunitha and Vinitha and then the Moinudeen family lived there until we moved. I used to play with Sunitha (one year younger than me I think). Vinitha was a baby then. The Moinudeens pretty much kept to themselves - later I heard Moinudeen uncle was actually a spy and was expelled from HVF Avadi. Wow, did not even know I was living right under the nose of all that excitement. Excitement apart, I did feel a certain indignant anger when I heard it. Who knows if it was all true or not - but I felt/feel very strongly no Indian had/has or should have a right to sell the defense secrets of a country.If he did do that then he got what he rightly deserved.

In G40/6 lived another close friend of mine, Lakshmi Alagappan. She had 2 brothers, Sivanand and Vijayanand. Siva was the usualy older child, mature and while he played with us, made sure his siblings were safe etc etc. Vijayanand was a character. A hoot to be around and made us all laugh all the time. He used to take Hindi songs, change a few words here and there or add a south indian accent and it used to sound so funny. I used to play Gilli Dhanda with these guys too. Siva used to make the gilli and dhanda I think. Lakshmi was in my class as well (I use my class loosely - in Vijayantha Senior Secondary School - English Medium school as it was otherwise known - we had about 8-9 sections of over 50 kids in each standard a.k.a class. So we were all in the same grade,Vinod, Pallavi, Lakshmi - but not in the same section).

In G40/5 lived Sini and her family. Sini and Sudhi were in the same class. I know she had a younger sister. I can even still remember her face. But unfortunately I do not remember much of their mom or dad. They lived right across Lakshmi's house and I was a frequent visitor there too. Lakshmi's mom was an avid reader and stocked up on the Tamil Magazines and I used to borrow them and read them, after I was done with all the magazines my family bought. This was inspite of school, extra curricular activities, homework, pattu class, etc etc. And playing outside all evening - well, if you know me, you know what a Type A personality I am.

There, the neighbors are introduced. Most summers were spent in idyllic laziness playing in each others' yards or biking all across HVF Estate or reading. We used to stage plays in our garden. Play gilli dhanda, eat guavas, go to the Estate shops :-), play cricket, play in the park opposite our quarters all day...What fun. Andha naalum vandhidaadho...I am in touch with Shibu, Shejil and Sudhi and thru them know of Suji and Lija. I wonder what happened to Sini, Vinod, Lakshmi, Siva and Viji - where are they now? what would they be doing? will they be thinking of me nostagically like I think of them...will I ever get to see them all again?

The making of G40/4

Type G 40 was located near a power sub station and was the corner block and on the diagonal side other G types continued and on the other side it was flanked by the beginning of Type 2 quarters.

Like I mentioned before 1 - 4 were ground floor and 5 - 8 were first floor. G 40/4, the quarters we moved to was on the ground floor and the much coveted corner lot. Like I also mentioned before it was a haven for the gardening spirit in my Appa and Paatti. I think I also further mentioned this is the perfect heaven for me and my best days and dreams are around this house.

The week we moved there, Appa went to the township office and used all his charm to get the guys that worked there to lay a foundation of 2 pillars for a "gate". And on the gate pillars, he got "Victory" stencilled on one of them and "G.S.Viswanathan" on the other. It was the name of our house - "Victory". Appa always maintained "V" is for "Victory" hence Vijay and I were named "Vishnu Vijay" and "Vaishnavi Vandhana". The Vaishnavi in my name is for the Vaishnavi Temple in nearby Thirumullaivoil and Vandhana was in honor of Sharmila Tagore's alter ego in "Aradhana". Well Vijay's name had to rhyme with mine..that's all :-)

Anyways, coming back to the making of G40/4. He then went and bought a gate in Avadi and had it installed. We marvelled at the architectural design in that iron gate. Then we laid out a cement path(courtesy township office) between the gate and the door of the house. On both sides of this cement path, my appa and paatti painstakingly planned and planted a flower garden. If you are going in from the gate, to your right was a beautiful rose garden. The rose plants were brought in from all over Madras (nurseries in Madras) and Bangalore by Appa, Murthy Chithappa and Balu Chithappa. On the left side we had a "Vaadhanaarayanan" or "Gulbharga" tree. Then we had a few indigeneous rose bushes and then a "Pavazhamalli" or "Parijatham" flower tree. This tree had the most exquisite flowers - white flowers on a coral stem...just heavenly. Actually according to Hindu mythology these were indeed flowers from the heaven.

And to the side, right by the steps was planted the "kandaranga" tree - which yielded a kind of sour-bitter lemon that people used to make pickles. Then a little beyond that was planted the "Rath Ki Rani" shrub(lillies that bloomed at night and had a beautiful fragrance) which the myth was attracted snakes and I used to be a in a constant state of panic as I passed it.

After that was some carefully stamped ground and then started the fruit garden. Bordering this garden was an Ashoka tree(ornamental) and then there was a guava tree and after that a "arai nellikka" (gooseberry) tree. To the right side of the gooseberry was planted a coconut tree. This was a work of love and labor. My balu chithappa single handedly dug a pit 6 feet deep and about 4 feet wide since coconuts needed that kind of space to root and grow. To the right side of the coconut tree was a huge drumstick tree. This one was inherited and we did not plant. It was already yielding a lot of drumstick and we used to distribute bundles of it to neighbors. The drumstick leaves were used for cooking too. And when you dropped a few of these leaves while making ghee out of butter it just smelled so heavenly. Again to the right of the drumstick tree(imagine a square) we planted another coconut tree. Then the rose garden I mentioned before started. All the four borders of the house appa, chithappas and paatti loving planted multicolor shrubs(which we used to call crotons). Interspersed were the "hibiscus - shoeflower" shrubs and the "December poo" shrubs. I cannot think of a single girl in our school in those days that did not wear tightly woven garlands of this december poo in their "rettai pinnal". These flowering shrubs yielded pink, white, purple and striped flowers that were so delicate, weightless and pretty much odorless...but oh so colorful.

To the left side of the Ashoka tree, (imagine another square), they planted mutiple plantain plants. And then beyond the plantains they planted cotton trees. These 2 squares flanked an entire side of the house. The other side was flanked by another quarters. And the front was the flower garden I already mentioned.

In the backyard, several herbs like Karuveppillai, cilantro, mint and spinach were lovingly planted. There was also a neem tree and a sampanki tree. The sampanki tree yielded the most beautiful, yellow, five petal huge flowers that were so fragrant.

We lived in that quarters for about 9 years and were there to enjoy the yield of much of this vegetable and fruit garden. The only trees that were still growing and we did not enjoy the fruits of their labor were the mango and coconut trees. Patti guarded the roses with her life - her philosophy was that they were a thing of beauty and to be visually enjoyed. Tell that to a household of Indian women who think beautiful flowers are to adorn your hair. But her rose garden was off limits to the long haired damsels my amma, athai, chithi and later me :-)

Thus the settling down at G40/4 happened. I will introduce our neighbors to you in the next blog.