Viola Villa, back to the Second Home
baap | 14 April 2005, 2:04amGoing back to the second home.....
A second home! AH! I love my second home. First a brief description: There exists this compound in South Lallaguda aka conventionally known as Tarnaka, which consists of probably the most happy and content people ive ever known. This property is called Viola Villa, surprisingly i never bothered to find out the meaning or hsitory behind the name, except for the fact that i was rather content with the repeated occurence of the letter V. (*grins)! Its a compound, which consists of a "Main House", and other "auxillaries" signifying that the parents/grand parents of the joint family residing on the compound, occupy the "Man House". The auxillaries vary in size depending on the age of the chidren and relative financial status of the children/parents.
This is a joint family to say the least, oh! no! not at all the ones occuring on the Saas-Bahu themes, but rather a more relaxed, i guess a more jovial environement..although there has been in the past visible tension...amongst the numerous "koddalu"s and"alludu"s. Oh! Yeah, fantastic tales of mature adults having year long bouts of silence over acceptance disparities about maid-servants/food...etc.
I entered this property as a 2 year old, the farthest i can remember atleast, bascially..i have a cousin living in one of the "auxillaries". Hence, started a 10 or more year long saga which culminates into what i call "the second home". My cousin and i were initially the typical cousins, having all the same childish pursuits of exploration and all the innocent stuff. But adoloscence, like always, changes a whole lotta things, he got girlfriends, i didn't..i got a computer, he didn't. He "continued" playing cricket, i "continued" studying.
Basically there ended the mutual "cousin" understandings and relationship, but the bond with the house, I never lost. It was the house i always wanted to live in; the one with a real garden with real vegetation, seperate "auxillaries" for the servant quarters, a SUMMER HOUSE!!!! Long halls, huge bedrooms, and stuff like that! The main house which initially was the only house with a tv, saw all the children of the compound (about 5-6 of them) coming and watching Cartoons, and cheering for either "Grandizer" or "Ninja Robots" or "Small Wonder".
There were 3 boys, and 2 girls when i was a kid, all of us cousins in some way or the other. All 3 boys being older, had their own seperate fun, while the 2 girls had their bringing up done by the "kodallu"s and the parents respectively. There were times when i stayed in this house for months together, never wanting to return home except for that unexpected bout of a bronchitis attack, where i had to be nursed back to health only to go back and be part of the fun.
Sports was the bloodline of this house and moresoever, Cricket ran through everyone's veins. I can only imagine how many times we played cricket, with each other, how many times we fought over whether the ball hit the imaginary wicket or not. Even in this prospect, benefit of the doubt was usually given to the batsman, although he was totally unaware of the dimensions of the wicket. It was totally based upon a balance of intuition and convincing ability (trump card being "mother dead promise"), a phrase which whenever used, sent the oppsing team back, resigning to the fact that they couldnt handle the intensity of the situation.
I saw my first episode of Baywatch there, developed my craving for the "American Goodies" over there, plucked my first fruits, climbed my first wall, and a whole list of athletic "firsts". But most probably the most important of all, i discovered a normal childhood there, one where evenings was by defacto playing time, nights was dinner and sleep ONLY, mornings were "sweet chappati"!!!! Sure, there were fights among us kids, which wavered between one being jealous over the other for being either too good in sports or the other being too good in studies (RELATIVELY SPEAKING). But at the end of the day, everything fizzled off over probably an action packed NightRider/StreetHawk/He-Man episode.
Whew! There is so much to talk about this place..i can probably recollect every incident that ever took place there. It was the conventional children's haven. Even now, as i write this down, a new generation of children is growing up right there! Now there are a set of twins also!
Viola Villa
/\ \/ (See!!! :D)
Current Mood: Cheerful
Current Music: Go with the flow - QOTSA
Posted in General | Next | Previous | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0)
1. VIOLA VILA
By shashi | 14 Jan 2009, 7:55pm
gee varun i had no idea u were so happy out there. to me the place remindsme of the long green mile. the closed gate is very metaphorical. shut the whole dam world and live in cacoon. i have not seen or heard any one react to any event which has not occured within the compound