Eating is an agricultural act - Wendell Berry

Saturday, April 23, 2011

season premiere - rains

the rains across tamilnadu finally landed at our doorstep just after midnight, a brief drizzle in the wee hours of April 22 and resumed in a earnest blast in the wee hours of April 23 - a total of 2.5 cms to start the 2011 rain counter.

we should have been overjoyed at this early gift....
but our mud house did not have a roof and we were, in fact, praying for a deferral when we heard news about rains in other parts of TN around April 20.

but the brief drizzle of April 22 had (literally and figuratively) roused us from our sleep and got us to do a minor mid-night roof covering operation.
realising that larger a downpour was imminent, we rushed to do a temporary cover-up of the wall and do a mock installation of the roof just to protect from this rain spell.
and how timely was it....a chorus of collective sighs of relief rendered this part of zamin endathur as the downpour of April 23 morning greeted the village.

this is the pre-roof situation from the last day of construction.





















setting up the pipes to hold up the sheets and the tarpaulins.




















the final roof mock-up assembly just prior to the downpour.




















and it held :-)
and now we are enjoying some seriously wonderful weather and so are the trees and the plants.

7 comments:

Surio said...

A stitch in time saves nine, eh, guys? ;-)

If a city looks so beautiful after the rains, I cannot imagine how lovely pR would look like.

Once again I congratulate you on retaining your individuality and breaking away from the "India Inc." cesspool -- where we are all so smart that we know the price of everything, but the value of nothing. :-).

And while I am shaking my fist at the system, you've decided to let the world do whatever it bloody pleases and simply enjoy your life.

SurveySan said...

asbestos for roof isnt good.

csm said...

surio brother - thanks.

ss - we know. hence we chose steel sheets. it also has its environmental defects, but it has advantages.
if you noticed, we are quite concerned about the environment ;-)

Vanessa said...

"tinka tinka chidiya laave
aise apna ghar wo banave
jarra jarra tu bhi jodke
ek khilona bana"

It's ok if this doesn't make sense :) your house-building posts remind me of this song sometimes.
Exhilarating experience this must be. The satisfaction of making your own food and savoring it is good enough. Growing your own food, building your own house must be million times that.

Yugandhar said...

Hey Sriram and team, I am very happy to see the computer design take concrete (err I mean mud) shape. The house is coming up very nice and your timely act saved all the hard work.

@Surio
BTW which city looks so beautiful after rains? Definitely not Hyderabad.

Surio said...

@Yug
LOL! Agreed. I was speaking with stored memories bubbling up in me.... Bangalore and Poona when I visited them in 80s.

Nowadays, cities are certainly different with clogged drains, waterlogged streets, illegal bldgs... :-(

---

csm said...

v - we have added a lot of tinkas while making the bricks :-) so it makes sense.

yug - bombay is still quite stunning in the rains.

surio - coordinnates please...-)