NaluKettu Nair House ( Tharavad)

The house is a traditional nalukettu of Kerala architecture.The house has a quadrangle in the centre. It is called the 'ankanam'. The quardrangle is in every way the center of life in the house, very useful for the performance of poojas .The front portion is 'poomugham' Kitchen is on the north east. Bed rooms are in west. There were six bed rooms.The house is constructed as per the Vaastushastra' The house is made using all wood .The interiors of the house walls are tastefully decorated with a wealth of antiques made from teak, mahogany etc.The traditional 'Nalukettu', is the home all Nairs.There are thousands of Nalaukeettu seen in Kerala.Many of them have been given dismantled. In its place concrete houses were constructed. .All nalukettu houses have protruding roofs formed shady verandas and protected the rooms from direct sunlight, keeping them cool even on the hottest days. The inner verandah around the 'ankanam' is open.There are several 'patthayam' to store paddy. The 'nelappara' is constructed under "ara". Nelapara is for storing brass and copper vessels like oruli, vaarpu, chembu of differet sizes.. The ara is the strong room of the house. Only the head of the family enters in the ara. He or she keeps the key of ara.The locking arrangement of the ara ensures the safe storage of costly ornaments etc.'Thenka kudu" for storing coconuts is on the north west.

Trees like 'koowalam' 'aanjali' 'mango' jackfruit, 'elanji' etc are grown at the appropriate place in the garden. In the east of kitchen ''kinaru' or well is constructed.There were two tall mango trees both yielded 'kuridi' (small) type of mangos and it's juice with rice was very tasty. I liked very much the taste of rice with kuridi mango juice West is provided with an out house known as 'chavadi'for the guest to stay. West of Chavadi the pond about a ground area is available. The 'ezhithil' the cow shed is on the south. In the side room of Ezhithil agriculture tools like 'kalappa' 'spade' 'plough' 'chakkram '' manvetties'of different sizes are stored. The draining of water or pumping the water to the paddy field is done with ckakkaram manually operated . The 'mittam' the well maintained ground was swept every day.We used to play 'thalapanthu' a country ball game in the mittam.'There was no electricity in the house. .Only lanterns were used. Electricity came to the house when I was studying in form fourth in 1949.