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Home 63
Kozhikode, Kerala
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S went to the Kottiyur temple every year, except for the two years when her husband was ill before he died from hepatic cancer. S described her husband as an excellent mechanic, the kind of person who could tell what was going wrong with the machine just by listening to it. Various personal problems, however, put them in debt . She lived with her sister and her children, and S pooled her monthly pension together with their resources to meet monthly expenses. For instance, this arrangement provided them with two gas connections for cooking so they never ran out. S’s nephew, who worked as an art designer in the Malayalam film industry, contributed to expenses but any construction or maintenance work was funded by S.

S’s house was not just one house but a network of houses. It belonged to her husband’s parents and passed on to her from him. Even though most of the extended family had moved out, they had not gone far and had built their own houses just a few feet away from the old one. As a result, S lived in a small compound of seven or so houses all owned by members of the same larger family. Because all family members shared resources to a certain extent, it was impossible to determine the consumption of each individual family unit. S’s only daughter had married a police officer and the couple was having a brand new house built for themselves right opposite S’s. Watching it being built, S stated that she would have to move in with her daughter once her new house was complete and let them demolish the nearly 80-year-old house she had lived in for so long.

The daughter and granddaughter were also present when the team visited the house. Once the survey was done S’s daughter clicked pictures of the team members with her daughter and uploaded it on Facebook.