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.