Question

An essay on my last at my ancestral home

Answer 1

This Home was built by our grandfather
Thomman Karikkassery for his brother's widow in
1924, but since she chose not to move from the
main ancestral house, he moved into with his
family. The design is inspired by his Portuguese
friend Mr. Carlos. And it was drawn by my
grandfather with help of senior Assaries
(Architect-Carpenters as they were the civil
engineers and architects in those days ) It took
five years to complete and was the largest
residence in Thiru Kochi state except for on or
two palaces. At present it is the residence of the
youngest brother Norbert Karikkassery. This is
located on the Karthedom road at Malippuram,
Vypeen Island. The main ancestral house is on
the other side of the Bunder canal and is the
residence of Sabu Karikkassery the grandson of
our grandfather Thomman Karikkassery's elder
brother.
The western fore-court of the house. The mango
tree in the foreground is famous for its huge
mangoes weighing over 6Kgs each, sour and
meant only for cooking. We call it Ammini manga
as there is no similar mangoe to our knowledge.
A favorite place to climb to, when doctors come
for immunization programs. Note the squat upper
floor, designed to be lower than the local temple,
as the carpenters refused to build higher than
that. The hexagon shaped room was called
pattom and the upper room was the study and
tuition room.
The roof has 36 edges which is about the largest
number in Kerala including ettu kettu manas and
carpenters used to travel from far and wide to
come and take a look at this strange house
influenced by Portuguese design.
There used to be two large jasmine bushes in
front on either side under which there were
rabbit warrens.