Many teenage friends gathered everyday to play at the spot where the gentle scout’s house stands today. He remembers, “Now alcohol consumption has decreased in the pada but earlier many elders consumed a lot. On going to school and venturing outside, we boys realised that this is a wrong habit. None of us wanted to stay close to such people. So we thought of building a house and living together!” “We 16-17 friends,” he added proudly, “Together we built a big house here from kaarvi and bamboo. It was a little bigger than my present house. All this after we finished 7th class. We used to bring whatever food we used to get in our (parents) houses, share, eat and even sleep together here. Then whosoever wanted to go to school or work, the next day they went from here. Later, some of us fell into undesirable company,” that is, started consuming alcohol, “and squabbling with each other everyday. Eventually we stopped living here. This house was abandoned. All my friends are married now.” The scout married in 2018. The house where he lives today with his wife and daughter was built in 2022.
Today, adivasi teens do not build actual houses to live together. Their younger siblings, however, imagine houses in everyday games. In their aspirational imaginaries, we observe a garden occupying the centre as a kitchen surrounded by separate living and sleeping spaces.
