Ventilator

In Jharia, all our rooms had ventilators. The way the houses had doors and windows, similarly it had small square openings high up in the walls, closer to the ceiling. The ventilators provided air in the room even if the doors and windows were closed. The ventilators were like a little box window with a pattern which was a part of the wall. The pattern were not checks or stripes but usually floral or paisley. Every house had a different pattern depending on the mason who made it. The ventilators on the outer walls of the house, had birds making nests there. During winters sometimes people covered the pattern by stuffing old newspapers in it, to prevent the cold draft from coming in the room. Our Jharia house had ventilators in the inside facing walls of the house too. Usually the ventilator was made above the window or the door but in some cases, it was on the opposite walls to allow cross circulation of air. The ceilings were much higher in the old bungalows and houses. Some of our doors had an extra wooden frame above it and a ventilator was made there. We had coloured glass not stained glass, in these ventilators. The sun streaming through it at a particular angle,  formed a little red or green patch on the floor.

I do not see ventilators in Mumbai flats. In the hostel, our room walls were not up to the ceiling. There was wooden partition as a wall to divide two rooms and they were not floor to ceiling. They were like seven feet below the ceiling height. For me as a child, they provided interesting light patterns to observe for hours. And in the night, when I woke up, it was never pitch dark. Ventilator was like that night lamp which nowadays people keep in their rooms for their children. My children have never seen or noticed a ventilator. When people started installing air-conditioners in their homes, the ventilators were covered up. In my Father's Nani house (his  maternal grandparents house), there were large windows running through the corridors and overlooking the Aangan with flowering shrubs and plants. The Aangan was the hub of activity and all rooms opened into the long corridor which surrounded the house on three sides. These huge windows were there much before the days of sliding and French windows in India. The iron grills had floral pattern and above each window was Ventilator, high up in the ceiling. In summers, there were cool natural chik curtains which were splashed with water to keep the house cool and dark. We were not allowed to play in the aangan in the afternoon as " loo lagi jaase' which means you can get a heat stroke. Many afternoons were spent looking at the patterns made by the sunlight through the ventilators.

 Long summer afternoons, No Television screen or mobile screen to stare at. No story books to read. It was just me and myself with my little share of light and air.