Recreating Yesterday

Wanted urgently: three million dollars for finishing touches to a 30-year old dream. To infuse fresh life into an almost lost world with carved, polished teak, red-tiled roofs, the scent of fresh jasmine and strains of Carnatic music.

Hidden behind a row of loud amusement parks on the Mahabalipuram road, Dakshina Chitra is a `one stop heritage project for South India', recreated by an American art historian in love with Old South India. Dr Deborah Thiagarajan wanted to create a centre which would showcase diverse cultures of the region, mainly through architecture, along with exhibitions on craft, textiles, art, music, dance and pottery.

 

Ten years and countless sessions with the bureaucracy after she got the land from the local government on a 30-year lease, only the Tamil Nadu and Kerala sections are complete. At least one $ 1 million is needed to complete the Karnataka and Andhra sections, $ 1.5 million to run the centre and $ 5,00,000 as a corpus for craft development and long term needs. Until now, most of the funds have come from corporates, the Ford Foundation and Japan Foundation but Thiagarajan's concern remains who will help her finish her dream project?

Born 30 years ago while she was working in South Indian villages on a research project for the Tamil Nadu government, the idea of Dakshina Chitra stayed on as a longing until 10 years ago, when a friend suggested Thiagarajan should live her dream because no one else would.

Walking through the sprawling complex it's amazing that one woman has been able to achieve so much. The winding, stone path leads you first into a Chettiar merchant house of Tamil Nadu; bending down a little to avoid the low doorway, we step across the threshold into a magical yesterday.

Knives of evening sunlight cut through the central courtyard. In one corner sit two women playing a traditional version of dice, there's a quaint chest of drawers, an ancient clock ticking away - all wooden, all priceless. There's a kitchen, a bedroom, looked after with immense care by a lady, one for each house, who wipes and dusts each object with care.

Beyond the backyard of this one is a row of agricultural houses, in near perfect ambience, a roadside astrologer with his parrots, a lady sitting stringing fresh, dewy jasmine, Rs 2.50 a length, solid wooden pillars in the thinnai (front verandah), low doorways that lead into small, cool rooms. One Brahmin house is slightly different, with an extra puja room, and a basil plant in the backyard. There's also a special screening of a puppet show.

Then comes Kerala. The best of God's Own Country relocated in Chennai. A Syrian Christian house, a Brahmin house from Calicut, a breathtaking wooden house from Travancore, a cowshed - each of them transplanted, stone by stone, beam by beam, without a single detail different from the original structure.

"We make at least 10 trips to locate each house, and for Kerala, we contact the timber merchants to buy out the house from them. Then we bring architecture students along with one architect and number every beam, every piece of wood," says Thiagarajan.

Currently, work is on for a Karnataka house for which 60 lorry loads of stone are being brought in. "Next, we do all the line drawings, measurements and bring the house down. Then we hire a team of people who can put it back up. Usually, there's about 25-30 per cent decayed wood and we have to replace it. In the case of Kerala, we bought a third house to use the timber for the two houses we have at Dakshina Chitra,'' Thiagarajan explains.

Besides the bureaucracy, Thiagarajan had to contend with others "First, we had trouble with the local fishermen who thought we were grabbing their land. For a long time, nobody knew what we were doing here, they thought we were the doll factory,'' she says.

"It's only in the past three months that people have begun to discover this place, simply because we never had any money to advertise. School kids have been our best advertisement. For them, this place is not just a concept. They drag their parents and grandparents here,'' says Thiagarajan

For the centre's landscaping and spatial concept, Thiagarajan credits the legendary Laurie Baker whom she met while scouting for a research assistant for the Kerala project.

"He would come here at six in the morning, sit down and just look at the whole place. Then he would sketch from all different angles. Baker does not employ contractors, he enables crafts people and it's wonderful how he has brought this place alive,'' Thiagarajan says.

Now all that is needed is funds to keep the place kicking.