The pleasures of a terraced roof

Unlike what you see here in the United States, most houses in Gujarat ( and most of India ) will have a terraced roof, ie a flat roof with stairs leading up to it, either from inside the house or from the outside. The economy homes would proably just have a sloping roof with metal or cement sheets, but the better homes would have a proper roof.

Since land is at a dear premium, the roof serves as your backyard. You have parties there, wakes, dry your laundry, air your beddings and mattresses, and fry out various foods and spices. The roof also is used at night for sleeping. Durng the summer time, at the end of the day the homes are usually really hot. And most people back then did not have air conditioning. And even if they did have air conditioning or air cooling, they would prefer to conserve electricity and sleep in the open on the roof.

And that was really something else. You would take your mattress, a futon about a couple of inches thick and a sheet to cover up with, to keep the insects away, and set up in a nice spot on the roof. I would normally fall asleep almost instantly under the canopy of stars and get some of the soundest sleep ever.

Sometimes, in the middle of the night you might have to make a run for it in case it rained.

Unfortunately, the pratice of sleeping on the roof started to fade in the later years I was in India due to the increase in crime, pollution and incomes. Yes, increased incomes ment that you could afford to cool your home to comfortable level and then didn't feel the urge to schlep your bedding up to the roof each night and down each morning.

But someday, I would like to sleep under the open sky again; and hopefully show the kids what it feels like.

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