Photo from online can delete if objected
When i saw this picture in a fb group i belong it reminded me of summer holidays in my childhood .
Every April we would travel to kerala to our ancestral house in Parappanangadi near Calicut to spend our summer holidays at Thekkepat kovilakam our huge house built by my grand uncle V.G.Nair who was our family head .
Being a bachelor his family were his nieces and nephews thier children .
The house was built in British style with attached bathrooms though no closets but just holes for using only for simple excretions at night or a bath .
It also was a nallukettu with nadu mittams or open to sky grounds inside.
During rains it used to pour into those nadu mittams .
The house began with a long pathway of almost one km with three gate like entries a lovely verandah with two cuddaph stone sitting places where my grandfather the venerable PC Manvedan Raja used to stretch his legs
The house came to my grandmother the youngest of the neices after uncle left us as her share .
The verandah led into a huge hall with red tiles where at least 50 people could happily sit for a traditional lunch .
Hall had a huge Edwardian table with ornate heavy chairs .
The office room was a library stocked with books from England shipped for my uncle who was a textile engineer working in the land of the British .
There were piles of textile books with samples of cloth pieces as he was an expert in them in fact he was known for even inventing a particular colour still patented to him .
Hoe and coe diaries with ever day for decades noted down in his neat hand was a priceless treasure which we never realised those days .
To me and my cousins the room was best for hide and seek after sun down in those pre electricity days as we hid and moved in its dark corners till we were asked to come have dinner .
The four bedrooms 2 below and 2 above were spacious and airy .
The other end had another huge verandah cum hall where one bit into non veg food a rare feast which could not be taken kn the house
The kitchen the outer kitchen well were on one side
Huge wooden store chambers preserved our harvests for the year .
The vast grounds around were filled with varieties of mangos ,jackfruits ,sappota,etc.
We had our own pond with a dressing room totally reserved only for our family .
Me and my cousins would pluck all the cashew fruits ,bite into their rancid juices and collect the nuts ,clean them sell them and use money to see films and eat biriyani in the Malaya restaurant ,the one hotel with some class in parappanangadi ,
with the locals watching our gluttony with glee saying
kolothu onnum kazhichille kuttikale !
Meaning no food in your palace 
Now the house is no more with not even a picture to redeem my post .
Only memories .
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