Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Loft- The Junk Yard



According to Wikipedia, a loft can be an upper storey or attic in a building, directly under the roof. An upper room or story in a building, mainly in a barn, directly under the roof, used either for storage (as in most private houses), for a specific purpose, e.g. an "organ loft" in a church, or to sleep in (sleeping loft).

But in India, we have an altogether different concept and purpose for the loft. It is more or less used to dump unwanted, discarded things rather than for living or sleeping as the definition goes. When ever a family moves to a house or apartment, first thing they look for is number of lofts. There was a time when every house used to have a separate room called store room with several shelves to accommodate all the unwanted things like packing boxes, trunks, broken furniture and beddings. Now the concept of a store room has vanished however big the house may be. Study room, computer room or treadmill space for health freaks has taken over this space. So where do we keep the not so useful items? Naturally lofts comes handy to our rescue.
In majority of the houses junks like broken plastic bucket, wooden logs, rickety iron chair, gardening or repair tools are stored on lofts with intent that they may come handy some other time. With the shortage of space, gardening is ruled out and those garden tools remain antique. Box containing rusted nails, screw, nut bolts, electrical wires, outdated switches and even fused bulbs finds a place on the lofts. I know many senior citizens who have accumulated many trash items like old marriage cards, bills, notices, hand bills etc and never allow any one even to touch them. That ‘some day’ to make use of those items,never comes. Either people forget things kept on the loft or purchase new items without bothering to search the loft. These junks are removed only when the house is under demolition or getting sold to some one!

The other advantage of loft is that they are never cleared or cleaned.  Mosquitoes, rats, cockroaches, spiders and lizards enjoy the ambiance at the loft and make their permanent settlement there. I remember, in olden times all the houses in town (Northern India) used to be white washed during Deepavali festival but with the spiraling cost of labour and materials, this practice has taken a back seat. So, there is no way for the loft to get a face lift! Modern gurus and specialists emphasize that  old unused items in house emit ‘negative energy’ therefore all such items should be reviewed periodically to be cleared and disposed of to enable the positive energy to flow inside the house  and make people feel good. What ever it be, next time when you are dusting your house, just peep inside the loft also.



14 comments:

  1. Hi Mr. Ayyangar, You reminded me of so many past memories. I remember every summer my mom used to ask me get up there and clean. I used to love helping her but never understood what satisfaction she got because we used clean all the dirt from those broken junk and put'em back. Never used even a single thing. Anyways I was happy to see satisfaction on my mom's face after cleaning. Even today I can laugh thinking about it.

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  2. Clinging on to old and unwanted utensils is a habit that is deep rooted in Indian psyche.

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  3. It may sound out dated, but I am very particular about VAASTU and would be careful in just about placing odds any where.

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  4. In the modern houses lofts are usually on the bathroom top from inside where it is not seen easily. They are used for storing things which are not needed immediately.

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  5. Reminds my childhood days and my ancestral home! We had a huge room as a store house that we gleefully dumped with all random things. Whenever I get bored, I used to go treasure hunting inside the room and always returned with something that I had long forgotten to keep me engaged for few days :) and when mom clears the room every 6 months or so and the "aakar" guy comes to take note of inventory, we discover so many interesting things as well as waste things.

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  6. indians love to keep all the things with them thinking they can be used at a later point, but that never happens ;)

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  7. Comments from Face Book-
    Anil Kumar Verma -
    At every place when i check different energies with my 'Lecher Antenna' it indicates negative energies near such lofts? Hence always avoid keeping junks in your home for a cheerful environment and health of you family members as indicated in Feng Shui & Vastu!
    -----------------------------------------------
    Anu Appaji -
    Getting the loft junk out is easy - don't put it there in the first place! But what to do about the junk in my mind ;-)
    ---------------------------------------------
    Hari Lakhera-
    The junk in our mind is, like the junk in our loft, is our own creation. If we can let go of one, we surely can let go of other also. The key is detachment. Remove the attachment to a thing or an idea and lo ! it is gone.

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  8. Reminds me of my nanis home...it was an open loft piled with clutter.

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  9. Wonderful post sir, my dad is a great fan of the loft, he doesn't like things to be discarded easily. Most of them find their way to the loft. During christmas each year I have a tough time cleaning and clearing the loft.

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  10. "These junks are removed only when the house is under demolition or getting sold to some one!"

    They also get removed when you shift homes, like I do :)

    Frankly, it is a useful space, but sadly misused.

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  11. Thank God I have just one loft in my house and it's used to store suitcases and an extra large telescope:)

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  12. :) so true!
    horror of horrors we dont have a loft in our redeveloped apartment!!

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  13. You point out each and every factor related with Junk Yard in this article. In India during Deepavali festival people through out unused or old items out of home. While some gather it in junk yards.

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  14. There was a loft in my house, when I was young. And it had rats indeed!
    God! Your posts remind of the old India that is disappearing fast.. at least in cities!

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