Anil Dada’s Lounge

ANIL DADA’S LOUNGE

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It is rightly said, “May your home always be too small to hold all of your friends.” (Shutterfly Community, 2021). Well, this phrase holds completely true for this single bed, day-rest room of Anil quite literally. Anil is the watchman of my house who performs his daily errands and gets his daily rest in this 2.5 m by 1.2 m room. This small room dwells right beside the main gate of the house where things almost get passed by, unnoticed by the guests in the house. However, the uniqueness of the structure and ingenuity in its design is what makes it leap off the page (refer to Figure 1). The room is cuboidal in shape with its roof pitched at a height of 2.1 m from ground. Since the room is small and can get suffocating from inside, it has multiple openings for proper ventilation and security reasons. The three exposed faces of the room visible from the outside have an arched window embedded in each allowing Anil Dada to keep a watch on the house even while sitting inside. Each window is placed in a grilled frame with the main wooden sash embossed 3 cm inside. The window on the front facade has a nail jutting out from the frame (refer to Figure 2). This nail is used for hanging a cloth bag which stores the keys of all the cars in the house. There is only one way of entry and exit from the room that is a 7 feet tall wooden hinged door. The peculiar observation about this 7 feet tall door is that 2 feet of the lower part of the door is below the ground. This makes the opening height of 5 feet from ground having people to bow down in order to enter the room and causing uncomfort. The main door in the centre follows 3 large steps for the feet to touch the ground. As a result, special care is taken of the room in the monsoon season. A waterproof sheet locally called ‘tarpail’ is placed at the ground level above the steps to prevent rainwater seepage. However, since the structure is 30 years old, the wood of the door has undergone cavitation creating several random holes on the bottom side of the door. As a result, rainwater still manages to seep in and clog the place. The entire structure is built up of concrete with the external walls cladded with white Banswara marble, imported directly from the Banswara village in Rajasthan. Interestingly, this stone matches the one used in the entire exterior of my house. The roof of the room is not flat and is grooved to avoid rainwater to settle and get drained down to the ground. It is made up of a local stone, customized and painted red, in contrast to the white Banswara marble.

Figure 1: Sketching the Details of the Exterior Note. The sketch highlights placement and overall proportions of the elements. It also gives an idea about the structure and material of the walls and roof. Copyright @ 2021 by Suvidhi Jain.

In spite of being present on the boundary wall of the house, the commotion and disturbance around it are minimum. My house resides on a secondary lane dominated solely by residential houses. So, the number of cars passing by during the day are not much. The only brouhaha it is filled with is all the kids playing in the porch at different times of the day (refer to Figure 3). There is just a single bed present inside the room so only one person gets their day rest at a time. The room, even though small, is fully equipped with all the necessities like a watercooler, bulb, portable fan, an attached bathroom etc. The open area on the right side of the room is used as a garbage storage area. It is ironic when one notices the efforts made in making it a living space but still placed right beside the garbage bins. Maybe it was built there due to unavailability of space elsewhere or maybe nobody even noticed or cared about it. The room faces the West direction and hence receives maximum sunlight during the day. The afternoon sun bathes the marble in its warmth, giving it a golden glow. Anil usually enjoys his morning chai and evening sleep in the winter season but is nowhere to be found near his room in the summer season during the day. Evening chai accompanied by the daily banter is the daily routine of all the house help in my house. They gather on the porch and either place their chair in front of Anil’s room or sit inside. There have been instances when we have hit the cricket ball directly at them, breaking a tile or two or making 2-3 chai cups spill. But Anil being Anil, instead of shouting at us, praises the shot and laughs it off. The room has just one bulb inside it and becomes quite dark at night. This makes this place a perfect spot for hiding in the game of hide and seek. As mentioned earlier, this room has the maximum exposure to sunlight during the day. All the family members in the house use this to their advantage and use the roof of the room as a platform to dry out wet shoes, clothes, bags etc. My dadima has got a nail hammered right below the roof and above the window on the front facade. This nail is barely noticeable so she uses it to hang the keys of the main gate of the house (refer to Figure 4). My mom always averted me from going inside that room which as a kid made me even more curious about the room. Its design itself has an element of curiosity and oddity which makes people stop and have a good 2 min look at it. The room in Figure 2 looks quite old and rustic but that does not hold it back from being the perfect hiding spot for me and hangout spot for Anil Dada. It is indeed the perfect fit for my house as it complements the look of it and multiplies the homeness of it.

Bibliography Shutterfly Community. (2021, March 13). The Best Quotes About Home. Ideas & Inspiration. https://www.shutterfly.com/ideas/quotes-about-home/

Figure 2: The Front Facade of the Room Note. The cloth bag containing all the keys and the secret niche below the roof can be clearly seen in the picture. Copyright @ 2021 by Suvidhi Jain.

Figure 3: The Evening Affairs Note. The image shows the evening scene on the porch at my house. The kids often play or ride their scooty keeping the outdoors full of commotion. Copyright @ 2021 by Suvidhi Jain. Figure 4: The Key Hole Note. The image shows a zoomed in view of the secret niche below the roof. The niche is created by excavating the marble from an area and eventually drilling a nail inside it. Copyright @ 2021 by Suvidhi Jain.

Figure 1: Sketching the Details of the Exterior Note. The sketch highlights placement and overall proportions of the elements. It also gives an idea about the structure and material of the walls and roof. Copyright @ 2021 by Suvidhi Jain.