Vanchiyoor

In a single, devastating blow, 36 family members were rendered homeless by a blaze caused by an electrical short circuit. The small brick house with grass thatched roof that had been divided into seven small units housing just as many families went up in flames, leaving the residents with only the clothes they were wearing. They had lived in this small dwelling for years, the men doing odd jobs in the area, and the women earning a few hundred rupees per month cleaning and housekeeping in this residential area of Thiruvananthapuram.

At first sight, this area of Thiruvananthapuram looks nice and clean with good houses. It is not untill you walk behind this line of nice villas that you see where the servants who do all the work within them have there habitats. Then you will see many families sharing a single tiny hut, with just one water tap for a dozen houses.

After the fire, the family travelled grief stricken to Amritapuri, right around Amma ’s birthday in 2002. They are simple and devoted people who came regularly for Amma’s darshan. After hearing of their misfortune, Amma decided to lend a hand. She asked Br. Premamrita, who is running all of Amma’s Amritakuteeram Housing Project s, to see what could be done. With the family he drew up the plan to build a two-story house on the same 3 cents of land, which would give room to the seven families – essentially seven Amritakuteeram houses joined as a single complex.

It took almost a year for the Thiruvanantham Corporation to grant the building permits, but now, one and a half years after the fire, the construction is well underway. Soon the men of the families can stop sleeping under the stars, and the women, who were lovingly put up each night by the neighbours, can all start living as families again.

The extended family who, after such a terrible disaster are the benificiaries of this blessing consists of seven siblings - four sisters and three brothers. All are in their fifties with children and grandchildren of their own, many in their teens by now. When asked for the family name they all start laughing. After some chit-chat amongst themselves they call themselves the ‘Puthan Veedu’ family: the family of the new house!

The workers are just finishing off the floors in the two story house with a dark red paint, and decorating it with little black diamonds. On the ground floor there are small, two-room apartments on three sides of the house, each hosting a family of four to five members. The south side of the house has the common bathroom . For the first time they will enjoy the luxury of real bathrooms and toilets! There is also a special puja room being constructed, and in a small patio adjacent to it will be a little enclosed garden, where the family will plant tulasi (sacred basil), a sign of good luck with a strong spiritual significance.

Smiling proudly, Sumitra Devi, a daughter of one of the seven elders, shows off the two rooms on the first floor where she and her mother and sisters will live in a few weeks time. She studies Sanskrit at a local college. On this floor a total of four apartments with two small rooms each, just like the lower level, are arranged. On the ground floor there are the rooms of Satyabamma, a fifty-five year old woman with a shy smile who earns just a few hundred rupees per month doing housekeeping work. Her sister Sumitha, who works in a children’s day care centre, will live next door with her family.

On the first day of Amma’s Thiruvananthapuram program almost the entire 36-member family came to thank Amma for the big help She has given them, and for the change it brings to their lives. Now each family can have some privacy - all was heard under that old hut’s thatched roof.

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