First Floor

Chronology of World Architecture Encounter with the Outside World Historic Pictorial Records of Goa Glimpses of GoaThe Deshprabhu House The Godinho-Jacques House The Loyola-Furtado House The Miranda House The Silva House The Costa House The Kelekar House

Second Floor

Climate and Architecture Material and Construction China Mosaic Flooring Frescoes and Wall Paintings The Interior Oyster Shell Railings False Ceiling Columns Indo-Portuguese Furniture Eaves Board

Attic Floor

Goan Houses Early Views Helder Carita Casa de Sobrado The Balcao Houses and their setting Tulsi Vrindavan and Crosses Raj Angan Machila

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The Kelekar House

Visiting this home is an unusual experience.Its location is not traditional and the home straddles a little knoll, which is a mango grove.Behind the house is a hillside cashew plantation.The formal entrance on the central axis has been closed and one now enters through the side and straight into the heart of the house, which is the courtyard.It is this brightly lit courtyard starkly covered with a lawn, which gives the house its life and sustenance.Wrapped around it are wide verandahs,which house the living areas,circulation,storage,pets and collection of arborics.

Ravindra Kelekar is a renaissance man, with varied interests astronomy, philosophy, arborics and 25 books under his belt in Konkani, Hindi, Marathi.What comes across at first meeting him, is his sense of compassion and good humour.But as you explore his past, you realise that he is an activist to the core giving up his education to join the freedom struggle and then participating in every goan agitation of note.He played a major role in the development of Konkani and it being made the official language of Goa.He represents an ethos of a Gandhian era, which is so rapidly disintegrating and disappearing.

He has a large collection of books on varied subjects from Religion to Philosophy in many languages and they jostle with the various prizes and trophies he has won.They include the most prestigious in his field and amusingly they sit side by side and complete in number with the trophies his son Girish has won for his dogs.Girish besides being a talented architect is a naturalist and is the founder and president of the Kennel Club of Goa he is also an adept snake handler and is often called by persons in distress, who have a snake trapped in their homes.

The home has a black kaddapa stone floor, which covers the whole house, which is a rarity, but the brightness of the courtyard with the rough floor gives the home its authenticity.Moreover changes have been made in the original house keeping the joint family plan intact.Girish has built a very rustic outhouse, which is used as a guestroom.This guestroom showcases Girish's design philosophy.There is a synthesis of the Western and Indian in this house especially in the details of the railings.

The house was built by Ravindra Kelekar's father who was a doctor practicing in Diu (also a Portuguese colony north of Goa).Though he designed the home, it was built through an uncle.After retirement, he returned to live in it.



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