In 1866, Rao Bahadur T. V. Narayanan Nair, a District Judge under British rule, built a house at Melur near Thalassery. It was raised in the traditional manner as an ettu kettu, with its own padippura — the gatehouse through which the property is still entered today.
The long decline
After the Judge's death the house fell into disrepair. It stood that way for decades.
1994, and twenty-five years
In 1994 the property was acquired by Sri Chathoth Ryru Nair and Smt. Mundani Narayani Kutty Amma. C. R. Nair then gave more than twenty-five years to its restoration, in the course of which the house was restructured as a nalukettu — the four-sided Kerala courtyard form it holds now.
More than twenty-five years of restoration, by one person, to return one house.
What the house keeps
Two objects in the house carry their own history: a kooja, a water pitcher, gifted by Subhas Chandra Bose to Ryru Nair; and a gramophone record of M. S. Subbulakshmi singing Vande Mataram.
2023
C. R. Nair died in July 2020 and Narayani Kutty Amma in December 2021. Their children opened the house as a heritage homestay, and it was inaugurated on 12 January 2023 by the Chief Minister of Kerala, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan.
Villa De 1945
the history of the bungalow on Boulevard Road, Mahe has not yet been supplied. The year in its name is 1945; the rest is to come from the client, and nothing has been assumed here.
