Starting The Leftover Construction

The month of March was when all the tourists would start coming to the mountains. We were excited to host the tourists for the very first year of the guesthouse. Madhu was building that house for 3 years. She had bought a massive land of 40,000 sqft in the middle of the forest with a big stream going by the side of the land. The location she had chosen proved that she had an eye for nature's beauty. The house was built on around 3000 sqft area. It was 90% already constructed when we met. Now our job was to finish the rest as early as possible. We knew that it was going to take a couple of months to finish. There were only 2 rooms ready to host the tourists. Other 3 rooms were under construction as the previous mason ran away with advance payment without completing his job. As we were not doing business on a large scale, we found managing 4-5 rooms easy by hosting around 10 guests at a time. The biggest challenge in front of us was the transportation of raw material till the house. The main road would end 200 meters from our house. Then one had to climb uphill by foot into the mountain. So transportation would be carried out manually or through donkeys. Cement, bricks and sand would be carried through donkeys but the steel rods for RCC construction weren't possible through those poor animals. That daunting task would be carried out by people. We weren't in need of any steel yet as the remaining 10% leftover work was related to plastering, plumbing and wooden floor work.

There were many more plans to expand the house and build more rooms but right then we wanted to finish with the basic leftover work and get the house ready for hosting the tourists. The main season in the mountains was from March till June so we were in a rush to finish fast. Shortage of manpower would be a normal thing in the mountains. After a lot of searches, Madhu found one mason from the nearby village through her local contacts. He was a mason and a carpenter too. We were happy that we found a guy who could work on both unfinished parts. Now we only had to search for a plumber. Luckily through the mason's reference, we found one. We started with the living room next to the kitchen. I and Madhu would help the mason in everything he would need. While Madhu would also look after the house and cook. It wasn't necessary for me to work. We could have hired one extra person but I insisted to work and learn about construction. I was learning from ground zero. Right from mixing cement, sand and water in required proportions. I would carry that mixture in a plastic tub and get that to the mason. While he would do his brickwork and plastering I would just keep standing there figuring out the science and technique behind his work. He would get amused by my curious questions and happily share his knowledge.

Learning new things was something ingrained me even if it meant to make my hands dirty. Sometimes the work pressure would just break me as I wasn't trained for such manual labour in the past. Madhu would sense my irritation and ask if we could hire someone. But I was determined to complete the task all by myself no matter what. It took us more than one month to finish the leftover construction. Even if it was frustrating sometimes due to work pressure I had enjoyed working. It made me a little bit wiser. The feeling you get from building your own house cannot be measured in money. Every single drop of sweat was worth the effort. I would relate myself to that house very dearly. I could only imagine how much Madhu would be relating to that house as she had built that from scratch. When I say I have a home in the mountains, it is not just because I found a loving family there but also because I have built some part of that house by my own hands. There was some deep connection with that house beyond any words.

Part Of Me Still Lives In That Home.