So typically Bangalore

So typically Bangalore
Deccan Herald

Situated on Ulsoor Road, the house of K S B Mani and his wife Lakshmi has an old world charm to it. There is a huge tamarind tree gracing the front driveway and the lotus pond is full of pink blooms. “My father P K Thyagrajan bought this house in 1952 from a Britisher who lived in South Africa. The house remains untouched from the day it was built except for the compound wall that was rebuilt in stone by my father after it collapsed in the rains. The documents with us indicate that the house was built in 1923 and the portico was built in 1931. I was born and brought up here. Now my daughter Indira and son-in-law Subash too live with us,” Mani says.

There are two words — Beit Zein — carved on the brass plaque near the granite steps. Mani is unable to explain the meaning of the words and says the original door was a strange cone shape which was later changed. A large dining room with several bedrooms branch off from a verandah in front. Pointing to a sepia picture which seemed to have been manually coloured as was the practice in those days, Mani says, “Those are my parents and they bought this house.” A beautiful old German Kaizer pendulum clock ticks on the wall. A beautifully carved camphor chest, a family heirloom, stands to one side in which linen is stored. All the doors are made of original teak and have beautiful brass burnished door knobs.

Typical of old Bangalore homes, there is a chicken coop in the garden. An ancient water tank stands tall on one side of the garden. Behind the house are the old rambling kitchens where the servants cooked delicious meals on firewood. An old grinding stone used for grinding masalas manually lies in the verandah. Everything remains intact including the chimneys but are not used with gas being the modern alternative. There are several servants quarters and the cow shed too is locked and barred. “We had plenty of servants and cows,” Mani says. Tamarind, mango, jack fruit and sandalwood trees grow in the backyard.

This house stands as a testimony to Bangalore’s sobriquet as pensioner’s paradise.

Marianne de Nazareth