… it’s me and mine, layered with our stories.

houses in and around Siddartha layout often have a large square in their lounge. It’s framed (5’ x 5’) as if for a giant picture and built into the wall. On or rather in it there’s a series of shelves.

Like this …

The photograph is of the one in our upstairs hall (aka living room). 

It usually has two glass sliding doors.

It did have ….

…

One day a glass door fell out and onto MAnjula

There was a squeal from Manjula as she was almost pinned to the floor, desperately calling for my help. I rushed to her rescue. . 

Her hero. 🤔

I lifted the two glass doors out and put them in storage. That was a scare. They are heavy and she was tiny. 

The photograph below, shows the bottom third of that very shelving. 🤔

It has a lot of clutter and that’s not at all unusual in our house.

That’s … My fault. 

Many of our guests regularly return, wanting to discover what’s new.

So .. what’s there…?

The item in the very centre is a stone carved statue of Lucie our wonderful dog.

With us for 15 years, she died in January this year. Carved by Mailis a French woman who stayed with us for quite some weeks. Another record! 

Mailis attended stone carving lessons at the most famous Stone Carvers in Mysore. The head of the family had carved the God for the New temple in Ayodya. So it’s very famous .

It was a beautiful thought and very appropriate as Mailis from France became a good friend of Lucie and took Lucie to the veterinarian on her last day, while I was attending Kaliyuvamane school to watch Kaveri perform at an event.

I went to the veterinarians as soon as the performance was over.

It was time for us to say goodbye to Lucie as she was suffering. We buried her in a field created for pet dog burials, did puja, buried a plant, said our tearful farewells and will regularly return to help her spirit on its way. 

I cleared the shelf to be able to place Lucy‘s statue in prime position.

I shifted all the characters that lived on the shelf and extra ones into the far right corner so starting from the right you’ll see a pottery version made by a tribal Potter from Tamil Nadu, an unusual representation of Hanuman. (He was the leader of Ram’s army that rescued Sita).

In my mind they resembled a crowd looking at the new statue. It was orderly but now as time goes on they’re pushing and shoving, breaking out of the corner and straining to get a better view.

To the left of Hanuman is a teddy bear — gift from my granddaughter poppy in London to Kaveri who we support, help sponsor and protect as she comes from a family very similar to Manjulas. That’s partly why we chose to help her.

To the right of Hanuman is an embroidered stitched star Next down is a plastic (!) flower

Next a silver glass. (In India the default name for a small drinking vessel regardless of what it’s made of .. is ‘glass’ ). This one, in silver, was a last Christmas present from Manjula. It’s a very precious present and acknowledges our marriage.

So that’s very very significant as most things are in this house — with a story to accompany them. .

As we move further left along the shelf we meet Goofy and next is a minion dressed as a guard that you see outside Buckingham Palace.

Gifts from crazy guests.

Next is a carved rosewood dog’s head gifted from one of the best wood Inlay workshops in Mysore.

Behind is a painting inspired by a traditional Ganjifa. It’s a family grouping of Siva his wife and his son Ganesh and in front of them is another famous guy — Donald Duck. Next to a stone carved image of a flower created by Kaveri with the help of our new friend

Pravalika ..

Little cup in front of it which is a featuring the Eiffel Tower and bicycles was a gift from a French couple who visited not long after manjula died heard our story and brought this gift but up to the left of it

Immediately behind Lucy with a little bit of her ear missing exactly as true to life is a plate with a series of photographs built into it of Manjula and I.,

moving back to the bottom of the shelf is an nifty little holder of photographs on the 1960s which holds two photographs of Manjula and it’s something I sometimes carry with me on my travels.

immediately behind is a lovely rosewood representation of an Ashoka column which has now become a key symbol of India, found on our rupee notes

From the top, there’s four lions, down beneath their claws are representations of different animals reflecting important human characteristics and all on an upturned lotus flower (which many friends associated with Manjula.)

Next picture. We got quite a few of these around the house.

It’s a watercolour from two brothers who visited from Chennai at the famous art market in Bangalore. In front is another (brass) image of Siva‘s family together with his two sons, his wife, his vehicle and his son Ganesh‘s vehicle, which is a rat or somesay it’s a mouse—whatever. Either side of them are representations the Sun — the Earth and then moon. To the left is a 1950s public phone a payphone from the USA. Since age 18 I collected telephones there’s a handful left squirrelled away in the house.

Plus there’s medals for Kaveri from her skating, even more images of Manjula a dragonfly reminding me of a messenger she once sent — bunting made out of Manjula‘s clothing Manjula‘s beautiful face preparing for our wedding celebration just got into all the stories that relate to the individual items of boredom. I’m sure that’s what the house is like.

This was our home together. It was the most special time in my life, obviously this equally special but this was very special because it’s the time but two people came together to work and fell in love. I never imagined that I would like to work with a lover But in fact it worked exceptionally well and that was down to her her ability to be flexible responsive sensitive above all you really showed me —the significance of — being attentive and present to help make relationship to work well.

..

That’s all left me a little breathless. There’s an important reason to share with you, details of our accumulated ‘clutter.’

Please watch this space.