Snapshots of my Home

The gate to my home, always open to well meaning friends

This is a photo of the gate from the street to my home. From time to time I have included photos from my home in this blog, but they are so scattered throughout the three hundred posts that even I can hardly locate them most times. Therefore the thought occurred today to pool at least  a few of them in one single post for a quick view. The home was entirely designed by me and built with minimum cost, bit by bit as I took off to work and earn more in Middle east, Canada, Delhi. Mathura and the Nainital District to build more of it. I ensured that the workers I engaged to build the home were paid the best possible wages promptly, even if I had to save on materials, without the slightest of delay along with a cup of tea and lunch besides. Every penny was earned from hard honest work that contributed good to the world and the lives of my students as a Professor and if occasions arose to compromise on integrity and ethics as it does increasingly in the modern world, especially in senior positions, I preferred to quit that appointment rather than compromise with the former, yet it has become beautiful some with green but mostly by the grace of the Almighty, Praise the Lord.

When a home is pretty, to put up a group of pictures of it is narcissistic and boastful but if you look through carefully the home is beautiful only because of trees and flowers and therefore if it encourages others to do the same it is worth it. An architect can easily scan through and assess that the construction itself is a very low cost one. It hardly costs any money to plant green things and then water them regularly if it gets hot and dry. There is no better way of giving back to mother earth that provides all our needs every moment of our lives, by planting more trees and flowers on it and preventing pollution of land, air and water bodies. At times some dear friends ask for pictures of the home, then it is tedious to look for them and post them but now I have a sample collection in place, all one has to do is give a link, and I should begin by sending to the wonderful business reporter and mate on BBC, Aaaron Heslehurst who earlier posted a wonderful view of green from the kitchen window of his London home..

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A concrete path with a tiny bridge in the garden. it twists and turns as shown.

The path that leads from the driveway to the front door

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A front view of ground floor

A frontal view from the side

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With a friend in garden on April 8, 2015

With a friend in the garden

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Godson Shyamu and god-grandson Golu in 2010

My Godson Shyamu and god-grandson Golu /Naynesh at age one. He is now six  and a half years old and older posts have many more pictures of him. He now wants me to get him roller skates, that I will very soon and a little bike too just as soon as I find a good helmet (that fits without moving much from side to side, less than an inch, has a good inner pad,  and is two fingers over the eye brows).

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My daughters in 2009

My daughters Ketaki and Keya basking in the sun . Ketaki is an information technologist and Keya (to the left) is MBBS, MD, Anesthesist, Internal Medicine specialist from a John Hopkins program also Geriatric care specialist after fellowship. She wanted to become more educated then me and she did it  :)

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A window with a climbing flowering wine by its side

A close up of one of the largest of windows in the home. This flowering vine is highly scented as well as several other around the garden so that most times a perfume pervades the air, especially at nights because of a large night Jasmine while the day is filled with day long song of birds that have made homes in the trees around the place assisted by bird seed I drop for them often in hanging trays.

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A clothes line in the backyard

A clothes line in the backyard , we dry clothes in the sun and not a dryer

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Hari sipping tea on a garden chair

Photo of Hari the lad who helps around the garden nowadays while Shyamu is away attending to his growing family. After looking at the pictures friends from afar said it is lush and green but the thing to note is that it is located in an arid near desert part of the world with three months of dry hot summers when temperatures are mostly above 40 degree centigrade and even 45 on some days. It is completely organic now for several years (in the initial years chemical fertilizers were partly used), fed by compost prepared from swept leaves and cuttings. Some of the watering is recycled home water and waste water of home and rain collection. It produces fruits (grapes, Indian black berry, lemon, mulberry, custard apples), flowers, vegetables (tomatoes, celery, lettuce, dill weed, spinach, Morinda, etc.), herbs, herbal teas and medicinal herbs including the famed Ashwagandha and holy basil described in other posts of this blog all on a small urban lot.

The last photo is another time when a greater numbers of flowers were in bloom

Persons from afar, when they saw the pictures said the garden was lovely for example London Gardens here. and this is what the world famous Aaron Heslehurst of BBC said on twitter after looking at the pictures,

Hail Mother Earth and the Goddess of Nainital .

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A Chair and a drink has always been available in my garden for those with hearts full of goodness for  about 25 years now

UPDATE FEBRUARY 25, 2019

A BREAD AND BREAKFAST ROOM FOR VISITORS FROM CANADA AND USA

I first visited Canada as a student in 1974 to study at the University of British Columbia and as happens with students often funds were limited. However, I managed comfortably because of furnished rooms made available by kind Canadians to visitors from afar. They said they enjoyed meeting visitors and delighted to assist. The time has come for me to return the favor.

I had originally built a large home so that it could meet any possible needs of friends and family. However as one ages, children grow up and go on to pursue their own wonderful lives visiting only briefly from time to time. Parents depart for the next world. Friends too age and travel less. Old persons are then left with large homes that remain vacant for much of the year.

Recently I refurnished one bedroom set with a private entrance (the room at the end of driveway in top photograph so as to make it suitable for any possible brief or long term visitor from North America, especially Vancouver the city I came to love and lived in off and on for many decades. The place is available for them at very modest rates, far lower than similar accommodation in the neighborhood. This one bedroom set has its own compact kitchen and a bathroom. The kitchen is not equipped to cook but I would arrange breakfast for short-term visitors (less than a week) and presume that longer-term visitors would be able to make arrangements on their own. My home is on a quiet street in one of the most modern and well-designed parts of India, but walking distance from most facilities a person needs to live.

If you are planning a visit to India and are interested, just post a comment with a way for me to contact you by email or text message on a phone or for example on twitter or face book. I shall respond as soon as I get a notification of the comment and provide any additional information that you might need.