The house at Hantana

Back in 1984, my son Roy was attending schooling in Kandy. He had been miserable at the school hostel and unhappy at the various teacher's houses where he had been boarded. When my parents agreed to move to Kandy and take care of Roy, we bought the house at Hantana.

Hantana is about 2 miles from Kandy, at a higher elevation than the historical city. (Kandy was the capital of the last King of Sri Lanka, who was captured and deported by the British. It is revered by Buddhists because the Temple of the Tooth (which is supposed to contain a tooth of the Buddha is kept there.) Hantana is actually a tea plantation which is still in operation. A part of it was taken over by the government in the early 1980s to build houses for the middle-class.

The construction was given to an Italian company, and they built the houses in a distinctive style never before seen in Sri Lanka. They had to build on the slopes, and Kandy experiences heavy rains, so the houses were constructed mainly of concrete. But certain aspects of the design, such as the parallel window panes, have proved a problem from the start. Frankly, I never liked the house, not least because we had to climb 34 steps to reach it. I didn't like the floor plan either, or the small bedrooms and the awkward corners.

Roy spent three happy ears at Hantana with my parents. He left for the USA in 1987 and my parents returned to their home closer to Colombo. We kept the house going, sometimes letting university students stay there for free or renting it out through a local agent. But it was a drain on my purse. On visits to Kandy, we would stay there for a couple of days at the most. During the 25 years I've owned it, I may not have stayed in the house for more than 60 days in total. It certainly doesn't feel like home.

My parents planted avocado, mango, and other fruit trees during their stay. These trees are bountiful now. After a brief stay last week, we plucked nearly 100 luscious avocado fruits and distributed them among the relatives who visited Hantana with us.

Although I don't appreciate Hantana, visitors do. This time, as the low country of Sri Lanka was sweltering in heat, the climate at Hantana was cool and nice. Not even a fan was needed. The water, coming from the springs of Hantana tea plantation, was crystal clear and the best we had tasted in Sri Lanka. Although I had plans to sell the house, I may face much opposition from family and friends now.

The photos below show the steps leading down to the road, and my dad posing in frot of the famous Hantana peak. He's sentimentally attached to the Hantana house because he lived there, under some hardship, when we first bought it. After all these years, he still has friends among the neighbours. Dad helped start an association of residents which is still doing good work.

Before the TV and telephone transmission towers were set up and it became a high security zone, climbing Hantana peak was a ritual for students from the nearby university. "Hantana" has strong romantic connotations for generations of university students and is celebrated in film, poetry, and song.