THE new sunday express Voices Pushpesh Pant S Vaidhyasubramaniam Ravi Shankar Preeti Shenoy Dinesh Singh Swami Sukhabodhananda MAGAZINE Buffet People Wellness Books Food Art & Culture Entertainment October 6 2024 SUNDAY PAGES 12 The Ghost Houses of Kerala All across Kerala, towns and villages are lined with abandoned houses and palatial mansions left behind by NRI Malayalis. This phenomenon captures a new pattern of modern migration, changing family values, economic priorities and communal faultlines T By Mahima Anna Jacob Images: A Sanesh ime slumbers at Kumbanad, a tiny town in the Pathanamthitta district of Kerala. The streets here are quiet, the narrow lanes lined with coconut trees whose leaves rustle in the wind. There is a panchayat office, a couple of banks, and a few bakeries whose glass shelves hold the colourful delights of sweetness that contradicts the forlorn air of solitude. Walk further, a profound silence settles along with the dusk, over the place. A two-storeyed house comes into view—its rusting gates chained and locked, shrouded in an air of abandonment. Nearby are several grand homes and a few single-storeyed struc, tures: these too stand marooned in a riot of unruly vegetation, showing signs of neglect, with weeds creeping up the walls and dust settling thick on the windowsills. Some display ‘For Sale’ boards. There is the occasional old age home that resonates with the loneliness of a forsaken generation as their young migrate abroad to greener pastures. “Today you go to any place in Kerala, you can see , houses lying locked up for months, and after a point, you don’t even recognise whose home it is. Many first-generation NRIs, particularly those who migrated to the Gulf, envisioned retiring in the homes they built with their hard-earned money expecting their children to use the , space later. However, as children chose to stay abroad, the houses became dead money after the parents pass,” says S Irudaya Rajan, chairperson of International Institute of Migration and Development (IIMAD.) The major contributing factor is migration. A 2018 study , Kerala Migration Survey (KMS) by Rajan and KC Zachariah has revealed that ‘‘one out of five households in Kerala has a migrant member’’. As Malayalis leave for jobs abroad, especially in the Middle East, the state is now dotted with over 11 lakh vacant or ‘ghost’ houses. The abandoned properties aren’t left behind by migrating Keralites, but also include homes deserted due to owners impacted by natural calamities, like floods, and now lie overtaken by marshes and creepers. occasionally When they call, we often invite them to . come back and stay with us. I suppose it’s the same for them as it is for us. We’re attached to our hometown and are reluctant to leave. They’ve built their lives where they are now, and finding it hard to let go,” says Varghese. If isolation of elderly relatives living in palatial houses is a pressing issue in Kerala, locked-up homes are abundant since most owners, unlike Varghese and Achamma, have either moved away or live overseas with their children. “If the parents are healthy and willing, they are brought along. The ones who end up in paid care centres are usually bedridden or ailing,” regrets Gigi Mathew, a staff member at AMM old age centre. The rise in the number of old age homes in the state is a significant consequence linked to the vacant houses. Kumbanad’s case is different from rural Kerala; it is home to around 25,000 people and boasts numerous sprawling mansions. Many of these grand homes are occupied by elderly parents, who often live alone or are cared for by hired nurses, paid handsomely by children who have migrated abroad. At 95-year-old KM Samuel’s house, framed photos of his five children are neatly lined up in a showcase in the drawing room. The elderly couple is assisted by a caretaker, who says the father’s health has been deteriorating for a while. Speaking about their progeny living overseas, he says, “All of them S Irudaya Rajan, chairperson, IIMAD visit appachan then and now. They are also watching him on the CCTV In towns and villages like Kumbanad, it is as if the installed here. Though he went to stay in the US for a time when life was unhurried hasn’t moved on. Villagers while, he returned four years ago because of health pedal along on bicycles through the narrow twisting issues,” says the caretaker. lanes. Locals gather at chaayakadas (tea stalls) sharing Since migrant Keralites prefer to live overseas for the snippets of news and gossip, or talk politics—the hobby sake of a better lifestyle, after their parents pass, the of all Indians. In a clearing beside a village road, you houses are simply locked up. “In Koipuram panchayat, come across a small maidan where stands a temple, the especially in Kumbanad and Pullad regions, one person flickering tongues of flame on its kalvilakku (stone in every household is a migrant. Not every house pillar lamp) indicating it is time for the evening prayer. remains vacant throughout though; they are visited As the clock strikes six, the faint sound of church bells once in a while at least,” says Sujatha P president of the , can be heard from afar. The idyll is deceptive; all across panchayat. These palatial structures are maintained the state, locked houses are a common sight narrating a with fresh paint and occasional cleaning, when the poignant story of valediction, neglect and change. owners’ visits are due. Locals describe their short visits For example, take a two-storeyed house in the above as “mini-celebrations”, bringing brief activity to mentioned Kumbanad. Christmas stars still adorn the otherwise quiet neighbourhoods. Thomas Chacko is not roof, but looks as if Christmas passed it by Within its . such a frequent flier. He and his family have been in walls lives an elderly couple, 97-year-old Varghese CA, Dubai for the last 40 years. He visits his house in and 90-year-old Achamma. Leaning on a walking stick, Kumbanad just once a year or during emergencies. Varghese’s steps are slow and deliberate, while Acham“Building a house in Kerala has always been a dream,” ma moves carefully her back bent by an old injury The , . he says, adding, “Though we live in the UAE, we plan to couple seems wistful, yearning for the days when return once I retire. Plus, the Gulf countries don’t offer laughter and chatter filled the rooms that are now citizenship.” His brothers’ home in Pullad also remains shrouded in dust and memories. “I have four children, Turn to page 2 who now live in Muscat, Kuwait and Mumbai. They visit “Many first-generation NRIs, envisioned retiring in the homes they built, expecting their children to use the space later.” Elderly parents of migrant workers find it tough to live in the grand homes built with remittance money from abroad