According to Vastu

Call it superstition or squandering money to hire a professional just for reshuffling things. Call it a branch of Feng Sui (IGNORANTLY) or a branch of science which can ‘make things happen’; Vastu is gaining ground in the Nepali household.

When one of my uncles bought a large plot at the lonely Baisepati out of the money he had obtained by selling the family house at Lazimpat, he became the butt of every family joke. Everyone thought that he had squandered his money and had put the security of his family at risk. Now of course, the jungle has thinned and more people have joined my uncle’s bandwagon and made a home for themselves in the same area. His house is still adorned with two rifles on the otherwise empty walls, boasting of power and security but the paranoid family members still do not like to take that less travelled road to his grand house in the middle of nowhere. 
Today, Bhaisepati is one of the most happening places in the valley. Everyone wants a piece of Bhaisepati, everyone wants to build a house in the locality. It is second only to Buddhanilkantha as a site that promises cleaner air and posh villas.

When the Narayanghat-based Kandel couple wanted to build a house of their own, they chose lonely Bhaisepati. They were aware of the growing security problem; the man of the house, Bhanu surely did not want to get his family members robbed in their own house. The grand house in the secluded place undoubtedly arrested much unwanted attention and one should applaud Bhanu’s presence of mind for fully equipping his house with the latest that technology can offer. “The compound of my house is surrounded by Infrared Ray security system. If somebody jumps into my compound, the siren is automatically activated as well as an emergency call on our mobile which will also be turned on automatically.  Similarly, there is also a Video Phone system installed at my residence which allows us to view and talk to the visitor at the gate before he enters. The gate can be opened by just pushing a switch on the video phone if we want the visitor to enter. I have also installed the firefighting equipment at my residence. A home should be a place where we feel secure,” informs Bhanu. It is not about paranoia or showing off money, people these days, take security matters seriously. There can be no compromise.

Vastu Shastra is a fast growing school of thought in the country today. Most  people believe in it. My neighbor just had his entire wall demolished because it was obstructing the flow of positive energy into his rooms/ lives. It could be hearsay, but we could hear the constant hammering from across the wall for three long days. “I am a believer of the existence of ‘Super Natural Powers’ in the Universe. There are so many things in the world that we may not be aware of, but they exist. I believe Vaastu is also something like that. Moreover, constructing a home is one of the very rare events in one’s life and I don’t see any harm in following Vastu,” enthuses Bhanu on his interest which some people tend to compare to Voodoo and god knows what not.
“It is not easy to follow Vastu especially when you have space constraints.  Eight annas of land is not enough to follow Vastu in totality. For example, a maid’s room is not supposed to be in the south west corner of the house but we have. You have to compromise somewhere. I understand, some of the non-compliance of the Vastu could be neutralized.” Bhanu sounds like a man trying to dilute the impression people may have of him as a hard-core Vastu freak.
Of the many things that impress an outsider is the use of rustic Italian tiles on the wall. I have been to a lot of houses, but had not seen anything quite like that.

“We had built the house thinking that we would be living in it forever. We have not compromised in quality. The house is earthquake resistant.  The interior has wall putting and the exterior has texture paint. The tiles on the roof have silicon coating, which prevents the growth of algae and maintains the original glow.” A house is never complete. Even though the Kandel couple invested their unrequited time and money on the house, given a second chance, Bhanu would love to build another floor for a gym, sauna and Jacuzzi.
Like a bee hovering over the sweetest flower, my photographer, an intern from Singapore who was there to assist the in-house photographer could not help revisiting the family room for the fifth time. The neutral color, the Japanese touch and the tiny frame of the room steals every cynic’s heart. And my colleague is no foreigner to aestheticism. Adjacent to it is the children’s room. Sanu informs us that because active energy like pink is good for the growth of a growing mind, they painted their child’s room pink. The house was designed by the architect-interior  designer duo of Pawan and Prabita Shrestha who run the Green Studio.

All the rooms have parquet floors and solar light installed. There are only Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs), the enery efficient lighting in the house.“We even watch TV with the energy stored from the sun,” explains Sanu who is not affected by the crippling power cuts like the rest of us.

“We think Vastu has helped in the positive energy flow into our lives,” the spokesperson for the ancient science, Sanu informs us before we leave her house.