The Ghost Bungalow

In the fading light of dusk, two handicapped boys sit listlessly in the spacious, though filthy, verandah of The Adelphi. Sounds of girlish chatter filter in from the untidy, dungfilled backyard as many eyes stare at us through dusty, latticed windows. A cycle stands against the crumbling main door which still clings to a semblance of lost grandeur. Who would believe that this was once home to Rudyard Kipling, poet-author extraordinaire of the Raj?

Today the bungalow is owned by Sanjay Singh, who belongs to one of the royal families of Madhya Pradesh. And sadly, most of the land surrounding the Adelphi has been quartered into small residential plots. Instead of Kipling, 60 orphan girls and their superintendent live in the front portion, while another part of the house is occupied by the Rajkiya Viklang Kendra, a state agency for the handicapped.

 

Kipling was born in Bombay in 1865, where he spent his childhood. After completing school in England, he landed a job with the Civil and Military Gazette in Lahore, which was owned by the Allahabad-based Pioneer group. Impressed with his work (his stories and poems had already begun to appear in the Gazette, later to be reprinted as Plain Tales From the Hills), the owners called Kipling to Allahabad in 1887 to join the editorial staff of The Pioneer.

The Adelphi, situated close to Allahabad University, was owned by The Pioneer. Kipling occupied the right portion of the bungalow while the press was housed on its left. The life of a burra sahib was a comfortable one, and Kipling took to it easily. He reportedly rarely interacted with educated Indians, but his short stories reveal that he enjoyed interacting with his servants and their families, which experiences were put to good use in his stories.

From all accounts, the training of an Anglo-Indian journalist was a peculiar one. Not only had he to become well versed with British administration, he also had to familiarise himself with the interests, modes of thinking and culture of the vast Indian populace. Kipling attempted precisely this during his stay in Allahabad which experiment found expression in several of his later stories. Kipling wrote his stories in addition to his regular work for the daily paper, and these appeared in its special weekly edition.

Kiplings literary career flourished. During his stay here, in 1888, he published as many as eight books, including Plain Tales From the Hills, The Phantom Rickshaw and Other Stories and Under the Deodars establishing him as a writer of considerable stature in India. He also travelled a great deal within India during this period, and published a book based on these travels ten years later, entitled From Sea to Sea.

Kiplings stay in Allahabad, though fruitful, was destined to be short. And in 1889, he left for London. But The Adelphi remained the cynosure of Allahabad society, and was counted among the citys poshest clubs, boasting two billiards tables and the only hard tennis courts in town.

Only a few years ago, the bungalows walls wore a plaque that reminded the public that Kipling once lived there. But today the plaque is gone, probably torn off by a miscreant. Kipling has been forgotten, and all those who knew him have long gone. In the dirty front verandah, we meet the warden of the girls orphanage. We ask her what it feels like to live in the house Kipling once occupied but she has not even heard his name. Sanjay Singh knows the name but still needed to confirm with all the old-timers that Kipling really lived on his property.

We take a walk around the house, managing to attract a train of mongrels and dirty children. They stare at us, eyes round with curiosity, and make us feel as if we had just walked into one of Kiplings stories. In some ways, not much has changed since those days. Although the white burra sahib of yore has been replaced by his brown counterpart the poverty ridden natives that Kipling wrote about remain.

The architecture of the Adelphi is textbook colonial style with its huge halls, french windows and spacious verandahs. We are told that it used to have large, lush gardens and stables, both now converted into residential areas. A large part of the house has remained untouched. Unfortunately, this also means that it has not been properly renovated. But even though the place has gone to seed, some of its features are reminiscent of its erstwhile glory. The wooden latticework on the windows, for instance, is worth seeing, even though it has been bleached white with age and lack of maintenance. Another interesting feature in the bungalow is the garage, that stands as a symbol of the comforts of colonial life. It opens into the house, which means that the sahib could get out of the car and step directly into his room.

Singh shows us a magnificent spiral cast iron staircase which he removed from the Adelphi ten years ago. It was languishing in the backyard. I had it brought here to show it off better. He points out that each step of this staircase is detachable and has to be threaded on to a central pole. Of all the parts of the Adelphi, this is the one that least betrays its age.

Some parts of the bungalow have been renovated or built upon, so that it is impossible to visualise what they must have looked like in Kiplings time. This is especially true of the kitchen, portico and stables. In keeping with colonial tradition, the kitchen was housed in a set of rooms some distance away from the main house. Singh has, however, built upon it and today this portion is up for rent. Similarly, a row of houses mark the place where the stables stood. These, incidentally, have an interesting history of their own: They were, at one time, occupied by Harivansh Rai Bacchhan and his family for eight years. In fact, Amitabh used to play with my sister, says Singh with considerable pride.

Its porch stands out as being newer than the rest of the house: It needed to be renovated as it was falling to pieces, explains Singh. However, the workmen could not restore its graceful arch, leaving it to stand today as a nondescript square structure.

My tenants are vacating the property this week, says Singh thoughtfully.Although its going to take a couple of lakhs to renovate it, I think Ill finally do it. And perhaps I wont rent it out again. Excited about seeing Kiplings old home restored to its former glory, we agree its a great idea. Then he says, It will make a wonderful marriage hall, dont you think?