Making peace with a truant river

Imagine an extended Walden Pond set in the Kerala idyll and you have Moozhikulam Sala, a pastoral housing colony for city people 28 km from Kochi in Kerala. As a mixed metaphor, one of the first things to catch your eye at the entrance is that there is no gate. A few metres inside, stands a large banyan tree with overhanging branches.

The mud paths abound in dry leaves. There is a good deal of vegetation: peanut, banana, fig, bamboo, sandalwood and cannonball trees. Because the Sala is right next to the Chalakudy river, a gentle breeze blows all the time. The calls of cicadas and the occasional cawing of a crow punctuate the silence.

The idea of the organic village was born to TR Premkumar, a former maths and physics teacher at a private college, after reading Living with the Himalayan Masters by Swami Rama. “Swami Rama said the more possessions you can give up, and live simply, the better it is for you. It is only then that you will see nature in all its glory.

It was a turning point in my life,” says the 67-year-old. He gave up smoking, alcohol and non-vegetarian food. He conceived a colony where people could live in close connection with nature. He located a two-acre plot near the Chalakudy river and advertised the project in a daily magazine in November 2005. All 52 plots sold out within a month. Today, it has around 70 residents. One of them is Pradeep Kumar, a freelance designer. He says, “I get to breathe pure air. There is a beautiful silence mixed with the cries of birds.”

The Sala comprises 23 mini ‘naalukettu’ houses of 1,089 sqft each, with three bedrooms; and 29 one-bedroom houses of 230 sqft each. No walls divide these dwellings of burnt brick and mud, made in the Laurie Baker style—British-born Baker (1917-2007) was renowned for using local materials to build houses in Kerala. “An air pocket between the bricks keeps the houses cool,” reveals Premkumar.

There is also a central well on the premises. Next to it, a 25,000-litre tank has been installed to provide each house with piped water. The residents of the Sala have a carbon-neutral kitchen—they do not cook the food. They eat everything raw, including the vegetables.