India, Feb. 16 -- By Girija Madhavan

A recent video on my WhatsApp sent my mind scrambling down the staircase of memory. It showed a picture of the Yadavagiri residential area of Mysore, when it was still designated as an 'Extension'; a word that was compulsory on postal addresses in the late 1940s.

The video also mentioned that there were only five roads in the area. and a few houses too.

My father's retirement home in Yadavagiri was built by the architect Rama Rao and we moved into it in 1948. It was a bold style of architecture then, square with broad chajjhas [overhangs] and wide windows.

On the brow of the hill stood a two-storey house belonging to the Brahmappa-Thavanappa business family of Mysore, also built by Rama Rao. Like m...