We had recently written an article about the house being constructed by Mukesh Ambani in South Mumbai. Quite a few people have been landing up at the article after having searched in Google using the keywords containing “most expensive house”. This started me out on an interesting search… Is it really the most expensive home ever built?The answer wasn’t hard to find. It isn’t. Not by a long shot. Not even by Indian standards. In fact all of us are already familiar with a more expensive house built in India – our very own ‘Rashtrapati Bhavan’.

Here are some interesting facts about it:

1. 17 long years were required to complete (1912-1929) its construction. Then on its 18^th year, India became independent. Interesting, because the house was built as a symbol of British Imperial strength. J
2. The cost of construction was an astounding 14 million rupees. Not sure how much that would be in today’s prices, but that is astronomical by the standards of pre-independent India.
3. At today’s real estate prices, the land itself will be worth more than 16,000 crores ($4 Billion). The house is built on an area of 335 acres or so, right in the heart of New Delhi. After all, New Delhi itself was designed by Lutyens with Viceroy’s house as its centre.
4. The building has 340 rooms within its 4 storeyed structure.
5. At one time 2000 people were required to look after it. Not sure whether that is still the case though. Might have been a colonial time extravaganza.
6. Although Lutyens and Baker – the two main architects, quarreled bitterly over the details of New Delhi and Viceroy’s house (they actually ceased speaking to each other), the eventual results is considered to be an elegant mix of Western and Indian styles. Indian architectural patterns such as Buddhist railings, chhajjas, chhatris and jaalis are found in the building. Chhajjas are stone slabs designed for preventing the sunrays from falling on the windows and protecting the walls from the rains. Chhatris adorn the rooftops of the building through their elevated positions. Jaalis are stone slabs designed with delicate floral / geometric patterns.
7. At 630 feet long, it is longer than the Versailles Palace.
8. By the way, the place also has nine tennis courts, a polo ground, a 14-hole golf course and a cricket field.

To the west of Rashtrapathi Bhavan is the elegant Mughal Gardens, which occupies an area of 13 acres. It has Mughal style canals, fountains and terraces at different levels with flowering shrubs and Western style lawns, hedges and flower beds.

To the east lies a vast court with the huge Jaipur column of red sandstone. It is topped with a bronze lotus and the six pointed glass star of India, in the centre. 

You can also view the Satellite image and the roadmap of the area. 

To all Indian Presidents’ credit, none of them have ever occupied the actual Viceroy quarters, deeming it to be too extravagant in nature. Instead all have occupied certain portions of the guest enclave of the building.

By the way, I can think of at least one other home building which might be even more expensive than the Rashtrapati Bhavan (not in India, though). Will cover that after some more research.

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One of the uses of wardrobes is for storing clothes. Clothes can be stored in a variety of ways. While some clothes are folded and neatly arranged one on top of another, some of the wardrobes also have provisions to hang the clothes.

Image Courtesy : wardrobemagic.co.uk

Typically in middle class Indian homes, clothes are stored by folding and stacking them on top of the other. This saves space when compared to hangings but then retrieval and putting things back is difficult.

Clothes can be arranged in many ways. (These are just my suggestions.)

By season/weather

Put away winter clothes when you won’t be using them. Same goes for other seasons. You won’t need woolens during summer and hence you won’t be retrieving them frequently.

Home wear/outside

What you wear outside can be stacked away separately. This way we don’t have to be appraising clothes when we are in a hurry to go outside. Home wear can be kept separately. 

Type of clothes

It makes sense to keep the clothes separately based on their type if not in separate shelves. For example you could divide the shelf such that you have half sleeve shirts stacked separately, full sleeved ones separately…etc.

Shelf

Clothes stored in wardrobes will not always be clothes that you wear. They can include bedspreads, blankets, rain coats…etc. It’s normally a good idea to put heavy clothes like bed spreads, blankets…etc in the bottom most shelf as they will not need to be taken out all that frequently. By not keeping other frequently used clothes there, you don’t have to bend down every time you want to pick a cloth.

The bottom most and top most shelves are devoted to no-so-often used clothes. If possible have drawers for small clothes like socks, kerchiefs…etc. Also typically suits are supposed to be hung.

Also remember, it’s not the organizing that matters, but putting things back where they belong.

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Wandering into a different territory, we thought of writing a small article of kitchen knives. Indian cuisine somehow never focused on good cutlery and kitchen aids. Most people are happy with say 2 pieces of blade (knife) and try to get all their jobs done with them.

Image Courtesy : harimaent.co.jp

There are a variety of knives out there. Each is meant for a specific task. Here are some of the common types:

• Bread Knife - Primarily used for cutting whole bread loaf
• Boning Knife - Used to remove bones from chicken, meat and fish
• Chef’s Knife - Used for cutting during food preparation
• Carving Knife - as the name suggests, used to carve large cooked meat
• Fork Knife - used for barbecue and grilling
• Meat Cleaver Knife - Used to chop meat, cheese into smaller pieces
• Small Bread Knife - Used at dining table along with steak knife, fork and spoon
• Steak Knife - Used to eat Steak
• Paring Knife - Primarily used for trimming fruits

For the photographs you can refer to the following link - > Types of knives

Depending on the use knives are primarily classified into:

a) sharp knives - used for cutting , peeling etc.

b) blunt knives - used for spreading jam, butter and the like.

And to manage all these knives, we suggest you use a knife holder like the one shown below:

Image Courtesy : wilong.com

Hope you liked this article. For more reading on knife from wikipedia, click here

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We first covered refrigerators here:

Refrigerator - An introduction

Refrigerator - Selection criteria

For those of you who use the normal refrigerator, we are sure you are familiar with the sight of a frost covered freezer like the one shown below:

Image Courtesy : unknownroad.com

The major difference between traditional refrigerators and the “frost free” refrigerator is the formation of frost in the former type.

So what is frost?

Water vapor from the food, ice trays and even the moisture tends to get accumulated into the coolest part of the fridge. Here they get converted to a solid ice like structure. Over  a period of time, due to constant opening of the fridge and contents of fridge there can be a build-up of frost around the freezer. This is called “frost”.

How do we prevent frost?

Well, there is no avoiding frost in a normal refrigerator. The only option is to regularly defrost the equipment.

How do we perform defrost?

Usually in most refrigerators, there is a small and tiny red button (see in the picture above). This is present on the thermostat dial.  Pressing this will initiate the defrost process.

What happens during defrost process?

The compressor of the fridge would stop working and the built up frost would start melting naturally. Typically refrigerators have trays and ducts to collect the melted water and it can be collected in the tray at the bottom of the unit. At the end of the preset time, the compressor would start to function again.

Can we defrost while the fridge is fully loaded? Would the food get affected?

Yes. Defrosting can be performed even if there are contents inside the fridge. Just make sure that it is not a long pending one as the internal tray may overflow.

Usually the cycle time of defrost is short and the insulation of the fridge would keep the food intact without any problems.

How often should we defrost our fridge?

This is a good question. The recommended cycle for most Indian users would be once in a week. If done regularly we not only prevent the build up of ice, but also minimize the amount of water that is ejected from the refrigerator. With optimum usage, there would be almost no water to collect as most refrigerators channel the drain water through the hot portions of the compressor where the water would potentially evaporate.

What are the problems if we do not defrost?

- The ice formed can reduce the overall efficiency of the refrigerator.

- If there is a power failure, the built up ice will melt and mess up the interiors of your refrigerator. This will not only spoil the food items but also cause the interiors to smell.

- Items inside the refrigerator will stick to each other.

- The water which would result from a long pending frost would not evaporate and tend to reside in the tray. This can be an excellent spot for mosquito breeding.

So, we hope that this article prompts you to defrost your fridge at-least once in a week.

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Whether you are going to office, or sending your children to school, there is one thing common - Ironed clothes.

Almost every home has an electric iron. We know we have not covered the types of iron yet, but we thought we could start with the ironing board first. So here goes.

Image Courtesy : laundrycompany.co.uk

Most people who use an electric iron at home, either use the study table or dining table for ironing. The other option is the floor with some heavy blankets and bedsheets serving as the surface for ironing.

Perhaps you are not aware of the ironing board and it’s merits!

• Most ironing boards come with long cables and a small socket where you can plug your iron in. This means the freedom to work away from power points.  
• An ironing board would reduce your fatigue levels drastically as its surface area is smaller and you can reach your clothes areas faster.
• The board is designed in such a way that you can wrap around the clothes (like shirt and pant) and iron them more effectively.
• Some boards have a cable managing system so that you don’t get bogged down by the iron’s cable while performing the chore.
• The material used on the ironing board is quite resistant to heat unlike your bed spreads. So even if you leave the iron on it for just a while longer, you will not burn it though. This is one of the biggest advantages. If you iron regularly on your dining table or study table, there are chances that the laminate may get uneven or even come off.
• The ironing boards are compact and can be stowed away when not in use.
• They have a dedicated holder where you can leave your iron flat face down without worrying about burning anything !
• Some boards, like the one shown in the picture, have a rack for your to place the finished items and then collect them at the end.

Ironing boards cost upwards of 1000~1500 rupees. The cost increases with factors like:

• Thickness of the cushion on the board and spare covers if any.
• Type of metal used in construction and powder coating if any.
• Company/brand.
• Accessories if any.

So, as you can see, there are quite a few benefits of using an ironing board. Just make sure that you purchase one from a reputed store. Also if it has an extension cable, it should have a three pin plug and socket to ensure that both the table and the iron are earthed and the user is protected from nasty shocks.

Happy ironing

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