The realm of the sacred.

In India faith is all pervading. The realm of the sacred does not restrict itself to places of worship. Spilling out on to streets, pavements, busy bazaars, places where business is transacted and the inner most sanctums of homes. Even the most modern city homes usually have a space designated to prayer and contemplation.
The Indian universe is replete with sacred gestures - mango leaf torans, rangolis, wall art, yantras and a lot more.
If habitats are indeed a reflection of the beliefs and aspirations central to our lives; Indian homes have an incredibly rich reservoir of images to draw from. A fact that cuts across myriad faiths and economic strata.  Symbols and images abound every where, in Christian, Hindu, Buddhist Islamic and Jain homes.
The religious image finds expression in various contexts:  in the form of the Christian cross and kitschy nativity toys or Hindu deities and idols revered in domestic puja altars. In the form of psychedelic pop art smiling down  from frames in shops or living rooms across the country.
Although inherently part of an elaborate ornate order, the ritualistic paraphernalia should not be viewed as having superficial significance only. Their importance almost always exceeds their decorative value.
At Sara Fernandez's home in Chandor, Goa, the family altar  finds a  prominent place in the living room. Among the various accouterments  of rituals and idols etc, stands a tiny statue of  Our Lady Bon Parte or the deity of safe delivery wrapped in rich navy blue velvet. The statue, known to bless an expecting mother and her child has been revered by the family for generations. Very often the statue is loaned to families in the village where a child is expected. Thus a private possession of one family provides moral support  and courage to an entire community. Interestingly when a baby was expected at a local Hindu politician's home, the statue  was requested from the Fernandez home to bless the delivery!

The mythic similarly is very important to the Ladhaki scheme of things. In a Ladhaki home, efforts to synthesize the material and metaphysical worlds are made at every step.
The roof is considered to be the purest area of the house, as such the four corners of the space  are marked by willow branches and prayer flags strung all around them.  A typical day starts with an offering of flowers and fruits at the domestic altar to appease the Gods, residents of the nether worlds and the ancestors alike.
So to in the Hindu home, the adoration and ritualistic celebration of the divine is the way to start and end a day.  Irrespective of the economic status of the family, a tiny altar or elaborate puja rooms are created for the purpose.   The entrance to the Hindu homes is blessed by idols of Ganesha and elaborate or crude religious symbols and decorations. During annual celebration of Ganpati and navratri ritualistic prayers often revolving around a particular deity are organized.
Many old colonial homes in Goa and coastal Maharashtra have Gothic altars resplendent with gold and enamel details and contain a fantastic host of Catholic artifacts.
In most Indian homes, the realm of the  divine is the space that draws the family together -whether for simple prayer uttered at the start of the day, or an elaborate festival. It is also a reflection of the passions that motivates the family and a fountainhead of the value systems that guide it.

Our Lady Bon Parte or safe delivery at Sara Fernandez's home in Goa.

Street level workshop by day, and home at night for a migrant metal worker.

Old haveli in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

Family mandir, a small altar in another part of the same house, and an old Raja Ravi Verma print hanging in the living room of an old Goa home.

A pot of tulsi finds it place wherever space is available in Hindu homes of Worli koliwada, Mumbai

Elements of the Goan home

An article appeared in the discover India section of online design and style magazine Prismma. 

Startling colours of an exterior wall and window from a Margao house. 

Dream like, yet elemental, Goan homes preside over a lush green paradise. The warm and humid climate blurs the distinction between indoors and the outdoors.  Shaping in response to the fecund tropical conditions and long years of colonial rule,   Goan domestic architecture is enriched by the European experience, yet rooted deeply in the local culture.

Ranging from simple mud houses, to grand mansions displaying an agglomeration of Mannerist, Baroque, Rococo, Neo-Classical and Neo-Gothic influences, Goan homes are a palimpsest of architectural styles and influences.

In home after home, one will encounter delightfully syncretic architecture and elaborate interiors that blend pre-existing Hindu and Maratha motifs with European styles introduced by the colonizing Portuguese in the 16^th Century.

The broad elements of Goan houses result form a mixture of Indian and Portuguese styles. Homes that are Portuguese in origin are usually two-storeyed and façade oriented. Whereas those of Indian origin are single-storeyed with a traditional courtyard based orientation.

Between the two also, there is wonderful mixing and marrying of ideas, resulting in nuanced, hybrid architecture that is both impressive and inspiring- for example the two-storeyed house in which the top story is functional while the ground floor is merely ornamental. It was Portuguese custom to segregate the lower storey of the house for the household staff and retainers.  Since in the Hindu home the servant quarters were typically located at the back of the house, this bottom storey became shorter, until it reduced to an ornamental high-platform in time,  adorned with decorative arches, pilasters and colonettes.

For a better understanding of the Goan eclectic idiom of house building one may firstly, look at ways in which the local population adopted styles and precedents set by the Portuguese. And secondly, the ways in which the local identity asserted itself in shaping and adapting the influences passed on by the colonial masters.

As they grew in power and rank within the Portuguese administration, the upper class Goan aristocrats sought to emulate and even surpass the grandeur of the residences of their Portuguese counterparts: The examples of this trend are many- The practice of building grand staircases in the entrance halls, many windowed facades- like at the Braganza home in Chandor- busts of classical Renaissance figures in the pediments of façade windows, grand dance halls as a focal point of the home.

In an assertion of the local Goan identity, the erection of a columned porch with seats built into its two sides, called bollcaum, also became commonplace in the 19^th century. In time the bollcaum was extended to include the façade of the entire house effectively screening it from rain and the hottest midday sun.  Where on the one hand the covered porch with built in seating confirmed to the Indian ideas of decorum, it did so by extending the house into the public space- adapting to ` open-minded’ western mores. It is an interesting vantage point to observe life go by the house, a feature used frequently by the lady of the house.

Other interesting and unique aspects of the houses one will encounter in the state are the use of locally available building material such as laterite stone in place of brick and lime plaster, which make for sturdy and durable structures.  Additionally, in many homes, readily available mother-of-pearl is used to line window shutters.

The window shutters are particularly enchanting. The shiny iridescent patina of the shell lends luminosity to the spaces that glass shutters – used to replace shell increasingly- are not able to replicate.

Something has to be said about the bright colouring and unabashed love for pigment here.  In the early days of Portuguese rule, only churches and other religious structures were permitted to use white to color their exteriors. The domestic residential structures automatically adopted bold and sensational colors subsequently achieved with the use of vegetable and natural dyes in the past.

A corridor linking two different parts of the house at the Braganza home in Chandor, which seamlessly introduces the outdoors into the house.

Baroque style staircase at the Braganza and Menezes family home in Chandor.

Hindu style Jaali motifs beautifying the exteriors of newer  bunglow style homes in Candolim.

House with a high-seat, Abade Faria Road, Margao

The  Bollocum.

Window shutters lined with pearlescent  capiz shells.

About homes: Stories from Goa.

Houses carry the imprint of their dwellers on them. People say a lot by the choices they make about their immediate surroundings, the way they live. History is threaded together with the shards of pottery and digs of crumbling structures dating back millennia. Located in their particular place and time, homes are a repository of people’s priorities, world views, histories and personalities. In a sense becoming a mirror of society itself.

An abiding interest in spaces, and how people live’ was what initially got me blogging about home in the first place.

I intended to say through pictures, stories, what the spaces I have personally experienced or even just merely passed through mean to me. At least from time to time, if not always.

All is well with intention; only one needs to actually get down to doing it too! Disappointingly I have not really started saying what I intended to say with this blog- barring a few posts which I link here and here (only cuz they were blogged so long ago).

I remained satisfied with what was easy, around me and full of me at the same time- my own home.

Now a tad tired with all the self obsession and self love (I have to say it, the blog in its current state does not leave me completely happy) I want to slowly get back to the original inspiration.

Was a trip to Goa recently that triggered the desire to revisit the germ of the blog. The houses that dot this lush piece of heaven on the west coast of India, bright, colorful, old and new alike, villages and Vaddos full of them, rich or poor -lend an instant personality to the territory.

Where only the churches were allowed to be white, the homes embraced colours in all shades, whole-heartedly and without any reservations. These structures dating back to each time and epoch in Goa’s chequered history, speak of stories and a complete way of life quintessentially Goan. Informing and inspiring the work of master artists like FN Souza, cartoonist Mario Miranda, photographer Dayanita Singh - just a few talents Goa's fecund soil has nurtured.

Monsoons are a beautiful time to be in Goa. It is enchantingly lush, verdant and quite. A season of soft, sun interspersed showers. Drawn by the welcoming homes dotting the landscape and a also following a chance encounter, seeking shelter from sudden rain one afternoon, I found myself seeking more and more homes and the people behind them. Over the few days I spent there, I had seen as much Goa from inside these homes as from the outside.

Posting a series of stories from Goan homes then… Saying as much is needed to be said and letting the houses do much of their talking.

Stylistically, Goan residential architecture, has resulted form extensive inter-mixing of pre-existing Hindu styles of home building with heavy Italianate, Baroque and Rococo influences introduced by the Portuguese upon their arrival on the Malabar coast, As opposed to the rest of the country, the Portuguese tastes entrenched themselves fast and quick on the Goan landscape, allowing very limited say to other influences, read english influences on house building styles in subsequent years also. A fact that sets Goa and its many homes apart from the rest of the country.

Have posted a few pictures of facades that caught my fancy. Will talk at some length over subsequent posts.

Mine has come to be called a `décor / design blog. As such some of you esteemed readers might find me digressing. I might as well shun that tag, because it is infinitely more interesting to observe people and how they add meaning to their surroundings.

Do talk about it guys... And come back here for more, because the journey was delectably long and leisured and my explorations many!