Chapter 11 The Period

 On the outside of every house was a carefully crafted kolam, a fresh rice flour design made freshly every morning by one of the women who lived in the house. Entering the house, there was a large stoop where older individuals would take their afternoon tabs on the hard slab of concrete, with no need for bedding. Entering the house brought you to a large room- this is where my father's family lived. They owned one bench and one cabinet. At night, the family laid themselves out on the floor like sardines to sleep. A family lived in the corner room and a hunchback woman in a small room at the end of the hall. In between the main room and the far end was a hall that had an open sewer that ran through the home and my father's family's kitchen, a dark room with a fire pit used to cook. The very end of the hall led to a small courtyard which housed the well, the outhouse and a small place to bathe. Well water would be boiled and combined with cold water and placed in a pail for you to scoop on to yourself. Up the stairs from the main room was my mother's families quarters.