As Prem Manasvi P opens eyes in his bedroom of a 200-year-old house in Cherpu village—80 km from Kochi—the familiar sounds of the twitter of birds, the occasional crowing of a rooster, followed by the mooing of a cow make him feel contended. A little later, the 77-year-old steps out and heads towards the 2,000 sq ft pond nearby to have a swim.But the surroundings were not as lively and beautiful when Prem acquired the house in 1995. “You will be surprised to know that when I bought the property it was mostly bare, with just a few jackfruit and coconut trees, and banana plants.”
Now, there are 32 types of trees, including the Red Beed, Blackboard, and the Indian Berry, and 45 species of plants and flowers. “This is the result of 23 years of work,” he says, pointing at a banyan tree. “I must thank my friend Shelly P, who lives nearby and did all the work of planting and nurturing this forest,” says the Kassel-born German, whose original name was Heinz J Paul.
But the bachelor septuagenarian is now worried about who to bequeath the huge property to. The house, a traditional naluketu, has four halls in all four directions that face a courtyard, which is open to the sky. Inside, there are rooms which were earlier used as a granary, a kitchen with a fireplace, sleeping quarters, puja room, a room to store large vessels, a ‘pampu kavu’—a space dedicated for snake worship—and another room that was used by the women who were going through their menstrual periods, and had to remain isolated.
But, Prem, who is in love with the house, has not had an easy time maintaining it. “It is difficult to find carpenters and masons to renovate the house without damaging it,” he says. Still there is no dearth of efforts on his part. Cleaning the pond twice is a part of his daily routine. Entering a traditional structure with a tiled roof, he has to take several steps downwards before he reaches the pond’s edge. Then he uses a sieve to clear the leaves and algae off the surface. “I collect more than one hundred litres from the 21-foot deep pond that contains two-million litres of water.”
As a result, there is plenty of groundwater and the six wells on his three acres are full throughout the year. “The pond, which I consider to be the crown jewel of the property, has helped in the recharge of groundwater,” says the Osho devotee, who landed up in Kerala following a meeting with Shelly at the Osho International Meditation Resort at Pune in 1991.
While Shelly worked as a photographer, Prem was a coordinator in the Press Office. “Shelly invited me to accompany him on a visit to his native place, Cherpu, where his parents lived,” says Prem.When Prem arrived at Cherpu, he quickly fell in love with the place. “I was fascinated by the sight of elephants, the greenery, paddy fields, and bullock carts and the rich cultural heritage of the state.”And, one day, a desire arose in Prem to own a traditional house. With the help of Shelly, he inspected more than 100 spots before he zoomed in on this house. And he finally acquired it on May 2, 1995.
Prem has a look of pride when he shows the visitor around his house. But he is also worried about the direction Kerala is going. “Too many traditional houses are being torn down. As a result, you are losing an important part of your cultural identity. In its place, concrete monstrosities are coming up. In the West, the preservation of heritage is a pillar of development.
New structures are harmoniously integrated with old ones. I am hoping that the devastation caused by the recent floods will make the politicians, administrators, leaders of civil society and people re-think about what’s happening in the name of development. That is the only way Kerala can regain its title of ‘God’s Own Country’.”