The Roof of a House in Kahdi Village, India

Although this house had many striking features, today I will write only about the roof. When you imagine a roof, do you really imagine parts of it to be flexible? I did not. Formally trained as an architect, I had always envisioned roof only as a cover. (Until I visited this house!)

It was a beautiful day in the month of July that I visited this house. That day, all the elements of weather were certainly welcome inside the house. The windows were open and so was the roof. Yes! So was the roof! It is a matter of simple innovation/adaptation. The slate tiles were fixed only at one end to the roof. The other end being free- tiles could be rotated, allowing the weather gods inside. How innovative!

Small innovations like these are abundant in houses of Indian villages. I feel my visits to these houses would be incomplete if I do not talk to the residents about ‘how they constructed their house’. Unfortunately, in this case the residents did not know. It is not surprising; people do not prefer to build in conventional ways now.

What is the justified price for heritage?

On our one day road trip (London-Seven Sisters-Portsmouth-Stonehenge-Dorset-Southhampton-London) Stonehenge visit was the only program that was compromised. Kristina denied as the entry fees was 8£ and everyone (willingly or unwillingly) accepted. I wouldn’t say that it is lack of interest for heritage-we travelled about 50 miles just to see the stones. In their opinion, ‘we did not miss anything’. We stopped by the highway and she took pictures. Isn’t visiting a place synonymous with having pictures of site? Plus, there is no information which isn’t available on Wikipedia. What remained to be explored?

I wonder, what should have been the price that everyone would have agreed to access the Stonehenge. Isn’t price a personal perception?

About 900,000 people access Stonehenge, every year, after paying 8£. People also pay as much as 270£ (for one day) to stay in a heritage hotel in India or 9.2£ just to enter the site for 2 hours. They pay 2000£ (in a group) to access Nefertari’s tomb, Egypt for about 10-15 minutes.  Whereas, in India entry to (public-owned) heritage sites costs 0.12£ for domestic tourists and 3£ for international visitors.

So, what is the justified price? And how do people decide what is justified?